Arii Matamoe

Last updated
Arii Matamoe (The Royal End)
Paul Gauguin (French - Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) - Google Art Project.jpg
Artist Paul Gauguin
Year1892
Type Oil on coarse fabric [1]
Dimensions45.1 cm× 74.3 cm(17.8 in× 29.3 in)
Location J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California

Arii Matamoe or The Royal End (French : La Fin royale) is a painting on coarse cloth by the French artist Paul Gauguin, created in 1892 during the painter's first visit to Tahiti. It depicts a man's severed head on a pillow, displayed before mourners, and although it did not depict a common or contemporary Tahitian mourning ritual, may have been inspired by the death of Pōmare V in 1891 shortly after Gauguin's arrival. [2] A curator for the J. Paul Getty Museum suggested Gauguin likely painted the canvas "to shock Parisians" upon his expected return to the city. [2]

Contents

Origins and description

Paul Gauguin, c. 1891 Paul Gauguin 1891.png
Paul Gauguin, c. 1891

In 1891, Gauguin sailed for Tahiti (a voyage lasting two months) expecting to experience an untouched Eden, far removed from his European experience. He was instead disappointed to discover that Pape'ete, the capital of the Tahitian colony, was heavily Europeanized and full of expensive distractions. Not finding life in Pape'ete conducive to his creative work, Gauguin moved after three months to the isolated village of Mataiea, near Papeari. It was here that his Tahitian-inspired vision flourished, and where he completed dozens of paintings.

"I have just finished a severed Kanak [Pacific Islander] head, nicely arranged on a white cushion, in a palace of my invention and guarded by women also of my invention", Gauguin wrote to his friend (and future biographer) Daniel de Monfreid in June 1892. [1] The death of Pōmare V not long after Gauguin's arrival, as well as Gauguin's witnessing of a public execution by guillotine several years earlier, are both thought to have informed the work; [1] Gauguin would later write in Noa Noa  [ ca ], a collage book which includes a photograph of Arii Matamoe (Noa Noa was compiled after Gauguin's stay in Tahiti and first published in 1901), that the death of the last Tahitian King seemed to him a metaphor for the disappearance of native Tahitian culture at the hands of Europeans. [1] Pōmare V, who was pressured to abdicate and give Tahiti and its island dependencies to France in 1880, and who would later succumb to alcoholism, was not decapitated or put on similar public display. [3] At best, such rituals were uncommon in Tahitian history. [2]

In Arii Matamoe, Gauguin achieves a tropical sensibility through a color palette ranging from muted purples and browns to yellows, reds, and vivid pinks. [1] The rustic, exotic qualities of Gauguin's imaginary "palace" are emphasized by the artist's choice of a rough, burlap-like cloth for his canvas. [1] The severed head, displayed on a low-lying table or serving platter, is decorously presented with only a hint of blood; a despairing nude woman crouches nearby, while a figure just outside the room seems to proclaim the man's death to still more people further away. [1] The interior is rich with Tiki-like figures and suggestive geometric patterns. [4] Freely mixing Eastern and Western influences, Gauguin combined motifs and imagery borrowed from Tahitian, Javanese, French, and Peruvian sources, and by doing so created a rich symbolic mélange which, according to Gauguin scholar Elizabeth Childs, indicates that he was "interested in proving himself to a Parisian art market". [2]

Paul Gauguin (French - Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) - Google Art Project.jpg
Arii Matamoe, enlarged detail

The words "ARii" (meaning "noble" or "royal", related to the Hawaiian word ali'i) and "MATAMOE" (meaning "sleeping eyes" and implying, in this context, death) are here written in the upper left background above the severed head, [1] which itself alludes to imagery frequently seen in European painting such as of St. John the Baptist and Orpheus. [1] The phrase "ARii MATAMOE", written in crisp capital letters, serves somewhat like the Latin phrase "ET IN ARCADIO EGO" in paintings by Poussin, for example, reminding both the figures within the scene and the outside observer of their mortality. [4]

Getty curator Scott C. Allan has argued that Arii Matamoe is both a "symbolic self-portrait" and a "self-mythologizing work", which serves both to fetishize Gauguin's fantasies of cultural estrangement and martyrdom while hinting of possible redemption and renewal. [4]

Provenance and exhibition history

The painting was exhibited in Paris by the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in November 1893, [2] [4] along with 40 other recently created Gauguin works, but did not immediately sell; it also failed to find a buyer in the Bernheim-Jeune auction of Gauguin works in 1895. [1] The artist Henry Lerolle would purchase Arii Matamoe at auction in 1895 for 400 francs from Drouot, [5] and eventually bequeath it to his wife in 1929. [1] It was briefly owned by the collaborationist writer and art collector Émile Roche, who sold it "before the war" [1] to Georges Leven  [ fr ], a prominent French-Jewish lawyer and acting director of the Alliance Israélite Universelle until his death in 1941; Leven's heirs consigned the painting to an unknown Geneva gallery between 1941 and 1945. [1]

Although well known to art historians and scholars, the painting was privately owned after World War II by a Swiss collector who, after 1946, lent it only once for an obscure domestic exhibition. [1] [2] After eight years of negotiations, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles announced its purchase in March 2008, declining to name the painting's last private owner or the painting's cost (estimated around $30 million by Le Figaro). [5] At the time, Getty curator of paintings Scott Schaefer called Arii Matamoe "the ultimate still life" and "the most famous painting by Gauguin that no one has seen". [3] After a light cleaning, the painting has been on public display since and has been lent by the Getty for several exhibitions. [1] [3]

Related Research Articles

Paul Gauguin French artist

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French Polynesia. The paintings from this time depict people or landscapes from that region.

Tahiti Largest island of French Polynesia

Tahiti is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. Divided into two parts, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti, the island was formed from volcanic activity; it is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs. Its population is 133,627 inhabitants (2020), making it the most populous island of French Polynesia and accounting for 68.7% of its total population.

Papeete Capital of French Polynesia

Papeete is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. The commune of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands, of which Papeete is the administrative capital. The French High Commissioner also resides in Papeete.

Pōmare I King of Tahiti

Pōmare I was the unifier and first king of Tahiti and founder of the Pōmare dynasty and the Kingdom of Tahiti between 1788 and 1791. He abdicated in 1791 but remained in power as the guardian regent during the minority of his successor Pōmare II from 1791 until 1803. He is best known in the western world for being the ruler of Tahiti during the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789.

Pōmare II King of Tahiti

Pōmare II, was the second king of Tahiti between 1782 and 1821. He was installed by his father Pōmare I at Tarahoi, February 13, 1791. He ruled under regency from 1782 to 1803.

Pōmare IV Queen of Tahiti

Pōmare IV, more properly ʻAimata Pōmare IV Vahine-o-Punuateraʻitua, was the Queen of Tahiti between 1827 and 1877. She was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Tahiti.

Pōmare V King of Tahiti

Pōmare V was the last monarch of Tahiti, reigning from 1877 until his forced abdication in 1880. He was the son of Queen Pōmare IV.

J. Paul Getty Museum Art museum in Los Angeles, California

The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The two locations received over two million visitors in 2016.

Paul Gauguin Museum (Tahiti) Art museum in Tahiti, French Polynesia

The Paul Gauguin Museum is a Japanese-styled art museum dedicated to the life and works of Paul Gauguin in Tahiti, French Polynesia. The museum has been "closed for renovations" since 2013.

Getty Center Campus of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, US

The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion Center opened to the public on December 16, 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles. The Center sits atop a hill connected to a visitors' parking garage at the bottom of the hill by a three-car, cable-pulled hovertrain people mover.

<i>Oviri</i> 1894 ceramic sculpture by Paul Gauguin

Oviri is an 1894 ceramic sculpture by the French artist Paul Gauguin. In Tahitian mythology, Oviri was the goddess of mourning and is shown with long pale hair and wild eyes, smothering a wolf with her feet while clutching a cub in her arms. Art historians have presented multiple interpretations—usually that Gauguin intended it as an epithet to reinforce his self-image as a "civilised savage". Tahitian goddesses of her era had passed from folk memory by 1894, yet Gauguin romanticises the island's past as he reaches towards more ancient sources, including an Assyrian relief of a "master of animals" type, and Majapahit mummies. Other possible influences include preserved skulls from the Marquesas Islands, figures found at Borobudur, and a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in central Java.

Kingdom of Tahiti Former kingdom

The Kingdom of Tahiti was a monarchy founded by paramount chief Pōmare I, who, with the aid of English missionaries and traders, and European weaponry, unified the islands of Tahiti, Moʻorea, Tetiaroa, Mehetia and at its peak included the Tuamotus, Tubuai, Raivavae and other islands of eastern Polynesia. Its leaders were Christian following the baptism of Pomare II. Its progressive rise and recognition by Europeans allowed Tahiti to remain free from a planned Spanish colonization as well as English and earlier French claims to the islands. The Kingdom was one of a number of independent Polynesian states in Oceania, alongside Raiatea, Huahine, Bora Bora, Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Rarotonga and Niue in the 19th century. The Kingdom is known for bringing a period of peace and cultural and economic prosperity to the islands over the reign of the five Tahitian monarchs.

<i>Spirit of the Dead Watching</i> painting by Paul Gauguin

Spirit of the Dead Watching is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a naked Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.

Queen Marau Queen consort of Tahiti

Johanna Marau Taʻaroa a Tepau Salmon was the consort of King Pōmare V who ruled from 1877 to 1880 and was the last queen consort of the Kingdom of Tahiti. Her name means "Much-unique-cleansing-the-splash" in the Tahitian language.

Teriitaria II Queen regnant of Huahine and Mai’ao

Teriitaria II or Teri'itari'a II, later known as Pōmare Vahine and Ari'ipaea Vahine, baptized Taaroamaiturai, became Queen of Tahiti when she married King Pōmare II and later, she ruled as Queen of Huahine and Maiao in the Society Islands.

<i>When Will You Marry?</i> 1892 Paul Gauguin painting

When Will You Marry? is an oil painting from 1892 by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin. On loan to the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland for nearly a half-century, it was sold privately by the family of Rudolf Staechelin to Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, in February 2015 for close to US$210 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a work of art. The painting was on exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, until 28 June 2015.

<i>Nave Nave Mahana</i> painting by Paul Gauguin

Nave Nave Mahana was made in 1896 by Paul Gauguin in Tahiti. It is kept in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon. The painting became part of the collections of the Lyon Museum in 1913.

<i>Fatata te Miti</i> (By the Sea) painting by Paul Gauguin

Fatata te Miti is an 1892 oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, located in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC.

<i>Merahi metua no Tehamana</i> painting by Paul Gauguin

Merahi metua no Tehamana is an 1893 painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin, currently in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting is a portrait of Paul Gauguin's wife Teha'amana during his first visit to Tahiti in 1891–1893. This marriage has always provoked controversy because it was arranged and completed in the course of a single afternoon and Gauguin claimed Teha'amana was just thirteen years old at the time.

<i>Aha Oe Feii?</i> painting by Paul Gauguin

Aha Oe Feii? or Are You Jealous? is a painting by Paul Gauguin from 1892, based on a real-life episode during his stay on Tahiti which he later described in the diary Noa Noa: "On the shore two sisters are lying after bathing, in the graceful poses of resting animals; they speak of yesterday's love and tomorrow's conquests. The recollection causes them to quarrel, "What? Are you jealous?" Gauguin titled the painting in Tahitian language, Aha Oe Feii?, in the lower left corner of the canvas.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Arii Matamoe (The Royal End)". The J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wyatt, Edward (March 12, 2008). "Getty Museum Buys a Seldom-Exhibited Gauguin". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Muchnic, Suzanne (March 12, 2008). "Gauguin on a platter". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Allan, Scott C. (2012). ""A Pretty Piece of Painting": Gauguin's "Arii Matamoe"". Getty Research Journal (4): 75–90. JSTOR   41413133.
  5. 1 2 Duponchelle, Valérie (March 26, 2008). "L'Amérique s'empare d'un Gauguin méconnu". Le Figaro. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.