Taperaa Mahana

Taperaa Mahana — End of Day — belongs to the group of 1892 Tahitian landscapes Gauguin produced to document the specific quality of evening light in the tropics. The transition from day to evening was a favoured moment across Impressionist and Post-Impressionist landscape painting, but Gauguin's treatment suppresses naturalistic light effects in favour of rich, emotionally loaded colour. This canvas, in the Hermitage alongside Piti Teina, was part of the Russian-collected group of his Tahitian output.

Evening light is rendered through a shift to warmer, deeper tones rather than gradual tonal darkening. Gauguin uses vivid oranges and deep magentas to convey tropical sunset. The landscape elements are simplified to strong colour masses, giving the canvas an almost abstract quality.