Tahitian Women Bathing
Original title: Tahitian Women Bathing
kurzbeschreibung
Paul Gauguin painted this oil in 1892, during his first stay in Tahiti, on paper that was later mounted on canvas. Several women are in the water: one stands in the foreground, another floats on her back, all of them held within the greens and blues of the surrounding nature.
Description
Up front, a woman turned away from us in warm orange tones looks out across the water. Further back, a figure drifts on her back, covered by dark blue cloth. A third, only partly visible, lies face down with dark hair. Along the lower edge, a red fabric with yellow patterns adds a bright accent. Light falls evenly, with no hard shadows, and the colors stay vivid.
Context
Hoping to find a supposedly untouched culture beyond Europe, Gauguin set out for Tahiti for the first time in 1891. This picture dates from 1892, a period of intense work on the island. Women bathing is a familiar subject in European painting, here carried over into a Polynesian setting.
Impact
Your eye moves first to the standing woman in front, then to the one floating in the water. A quiet, withdrawn mood settles in; the figures seem to grow out of the landscape. Bold areas of color and simplified shapes give the picture something decorative, almost dreamlike.
Technique
Gauguin worked in oil on paper, which was later mounted on canvas. The paint sits in flat, thick layers, often placed side by side directly and unmixed. This brings out the picture's flatness and its decorative character.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)