Painting

This 1899 canvas belongs to Gauguin's second Tahitian period, painted after his return to Polynesia in 1895 following a brief and disillusioning visit to France. By this point he had fully committed to life in the Pacific and was developing the monumental, symbolic figuration that would define his late masterworks. The work is held by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, reflecting the wide European dispersal of his Tahitian output through dealer Ambroise Vollard. Gauguin's 1899 production occurred alongside the creation of the large allegorical canvas Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, marking a period of intense creative output.

Gauguin's Post-Impressionist handling employs flat zones of colour bounded by emphatic contour lines—his cloisonnist method—suppressing atmospheric depth in favour of decorative surface tension. Warm ochres and deep greens dominate, applied with deliberate, unhurried strokes that assert the canvas weave.