The Big Tree (Te raau rahi)

The Big Tree (Te raau rahi) from Gauguin's second Tahitian period (1899–1903) represents his most monumental approach to the Polynesian landscape. A single dominant tree anchors the composition, its mass and verticality giving the picture the quality of a religious image — tree as totem rather than botanical specimen. Gauguin had been absorbing Buddhist iconography through photographs he kept pinned to his studio wall (particularly the friezes of Borobudur), and the tree as sacred vertical appears in the background of several Tahitian figure paintings as well as in these pure landscape works.

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.