The Big Tree (Te raau rahi)

The Big Tree (Te raau rahi, 1891) at the Art Institute of Chicago shows Gauguin in his first Tahitian year using the great trees of the Pacific landscape as compositional and symbolic anchors. The large trees of Tahiti — spreading their canopies over the red earth and drawing figures beneath their shade — became central elements of his Polynesian iconography. He had been collecting photographs of Borobudur temple reliefs, and the great trees in those Buddhist monuments provided a non-Western visual precedent for the tree as a sacred presence in landscape. His treatment differs fundamentally from the French landscape tradition's use of trees: rather than providing atmosphere, scale reference, or compositional framing in the Barbizon manner, Gauguin's trees are primary subjects, their physical mass given the weight of monuments or idols. The Art Institute of Chicago holds major canvases from across Gauguin's Polynesian career, and this early first-stay work is among the most important documents of how his Pacific iconography initially took shape.

The large tree trunk is painted with thick, assured strokes of ochre-brown and umber, its scale dominating the composition. The surrounding foliage and ground are built from smaller, more varied marks in green and gold. The sky behind the canopy is kept thin and pale, emphasising the tree's imposing volume.