Tahitian Woman and Boy

Tahitian Woman and Boy was painted during Gauguin's second Tahitian stay (1899) and belongs to the quieter, more domestically observed group of works from that period, before his move to the more remote Marquesas. By 1899 Gauguin was physically unwell — suffering from syphilis and its treatments — and the relative calm of the mother-and-child subject reflects a momentary withdrawal from the ambitious mythological programme of works like Where Do We Come From? The painting shows his sustained mastery of the Tahitian figure type — the woman's solidity and self-possession rendered with absolute confidence.

The woman's figure is built with the monumental simplicity of Gauguin's mature Polynesian figure painting. The boy beside her is rendered in smaller, rounder forms. The background — flat green with some floral decoration — provides a unified chromatic ground. Flesh tones are warm and unmodulated, defined by clean colour boundaries.