Sailing Vessel in Moonlight

Gauguin's Sailing Vessel in Moonlight belongs to the small group of nocturnal subjects in his output, a departure from the dominant daytime Polynesian light of his Pacific work. Moonlit water and the silhouette of a sailing vessel connect this work to the Romantic maritime tradition of Caspar David Friedrich and Turner, mediated through the flattening lens of Gauguin's Synthetism. The Pacific ocean was an ever-present reality for Gauguin in Tahiti and the Marquesas, and the sailing vessel carried obvious autobiographical resonance — it was the means of his departure from and return to the European world he had rejected.

The moonlit water is rendered in horizontal strokes of dark blue and silver, with the reflected light path in pale yellow-white. The sailing vessel is silhouetted in near-black against the lighter sky and water. The restricted tonal range — unusual in Gauguin's colouristically bold work — creates an atmosphere of melancholy stillness.