The Judgement of Paris

Gauguin's interpretation of the Judgement of Paris — the mythological scene in which the Trojan prince Paris chooses the most beautiful goddess — is characteristically transposed into a Polynesian register, with Marquesan or Tahitian women standing in for the classical goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. By 1902, working in the Marquesas, Gauguin was assembling a personal mythology in which Western classical subjects and Polynesian imagery were freely interchangeable, both representing archetypal human situations that transcended their specific cultural settings. The Judgement of Paris carried obvious resonance for a painter who had spent his career making choices about beauty, desire, and value. The Trade Fair Palace in Prague holds this as part of its Post-Impressionist collection.

Gauguin's treatment of the classical subject in Polynesian terms involves a deliberate flattening of the composition into broad color planes and strong outlines, giving the scene the quality of a Polynesian frieze rather than an Olympian tableau. The figures' poses are adapted from both Polynesian observation and European classical sources.