| Fatata te Miti | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Paul Gauguin |
| Year | 1892 |
| Catalogue | W 463 |
| Type | Oil paint on canvas |
| Dimensions | 68 by 92 centimetres (27 in × 36 in) |
| Location | National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Fatata te Miti is an 1892 oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, located in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC. [1] [2]
Gauguin painted Fatata te miti (By the Sea) in 1892 during his first trip to Tahiti. Like Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) (W 449) painted at the same time, it is an example of the relatively few straightforward genre scenes that Gauguin painted immediately after setting up his studio in a native bamboo hut at Mataiea, Papeari. [3] Nevertheless, as Nancy Mowll Mathews, Gauguin's biographer, points out, neither represents what he actually saw; the paintings transforming the mundane and ordinary into an exoticized view of the island's life. [4] A pendant painting Arearea no varua ino (The Amusement of the Evil Spirit) (W 514), executed shortly after Gauguin had returned to Paris, appears to share the same setting and demonstrates how he moved on from simple genre painting, introducing symbolist elements. The same tree, dividing the painting into two distinct zones, can be seen in Parau na te Varua ino (Words of the Devil) (W 458). [3]
The painting depicts two Tahitian women, seen from behind, jumping into the sea. There is a fisherman in the background, fishing with a spear. The painting epitomizes the romantic view of Tahitians made famous by Pierre Loti's Le Mariage de Loti . In that novel, Loti described his Tahitian bride's pursuits as extremely simple, "reverie, bathing, above all bathing". [5] The women in the painting bathe naked, removing their pareos , apparently unbothered by the presence of the fisherman nearby. This is an image of the uninhibited tropical paradise Gauguin had hoped to find, although the reality was that Polynesian culture had been transformed by western missionaries and colonialism as they imposed their own values and religion on the people living in the islands. [3] [6]
The theme of nymphs frolicking in the waves was a tradition of the Golden Age repeatedly represented by artists such as Titian and Courbet through to Gauguin's own contemporary Degas. Gauguin was fascinated by the theme, first taking it up in 1885 with his Women Bathing (W 167). He returned to it with his 1889 Ondine (W 336), his signature painting at the Volpini Exhibition. [3]
Gauguin uses intense tropical colors to convey sensual delight. [6] For example, he uses pinks and purples for the sand, although in reality the beaches were a drab volcanic brown. [4] The technique employed here of applying pure (unmixed) color in bold and flat shapes delineated by dark counters is one he developed in Brittany, dubbed cloisonnism . [3] Eisenman remarks that in this and similar paintings, Gauguin placed jigsaw puzzles shapes of complementary and adjacent shades side by side as binaries to suggest a coloristic liminal intermediary, reflecting Gauguin's spiritual belief that binaries such as the moral and physical universe were reconcilable. [7] To heighten the luminosity and enhance their jewellike effect, Gauguin applied a thin layer of clear wax to the surface of his early Tahitian paintings. [3]
The painting was previously owned by Chester Dale, who left his collection to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. in 1962. [8]
Looking for a society more elemental and simple than that in France, Gauguin auctioned thirty of his paintings and used the money to travel to Tahiti. This first visit lasted from 1891 to 1893. His book Noa Noa was written in the style of a travel journal and was originally meant to provide a context for his 1893 Paris exhibition. Gauguin first used the words "Noa Noa" reporting the words the Tahitians themselves used for the scent of Tahitian women: "Téiné merahi noa noa " meaning "(now) very fragrant". [9] The substantive Fenua ("land" or "island") is understood in the title of his book, so the correct translation is "The Fragrant Isle". Also implied is the Tahitian term for "Paradise" - Rohutu noanoa. [10] In the event his book remained unpublished until 1901, although extracts were published in La Revue Blanche in 1897. [11] [12] [13] The first European exhibition of Gauguin's work took place in March 1893 in Copenhagen, when he was able to take up the offer of a visiting sea captain and send out eight selected paintings. [14]
A mingled perfume, half animal, half vegetable emanated from them; the perfume of their blood and of the gardenias—tiaré—which they wore in their hair. "Téiné merahi noa noa (now very fragrant)," they said.
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influential practitioner of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. While only moderately successful during his lifetime, Gauguin has since been recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism.
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? is an 1897–98 painting by French artist Paul Gauguin. The painting was created in Tahiti and is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Viewed as a masterpiece by Gauguin, the painting is considered "a philosophical work comparable to the themes of the Gospels".
In the arts of the Western World, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of the primitive time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism proposes that the people of a primitive society possess a morality and an ethics that are superior to the urban value system of civilized people.
The year 1892 in art involved some significant events.
The Volpini Exhibition was an exhibition of paintings arranged by Paul Gauguin and his circle held at the Café des Arts on the Champ de Mars, not far from the official art pavilion of the 1889 Exposition universelle in Paris. A poster and an illustrated catalogue were printed, but the show of "Paintings by the Impressionist and Synthetist Group", held in June and early July 1889, was ignored by the press and proved to be a failure.
Tahitian Women on the Beach is an oil painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin. Depicting two Tahitian women, this piece is one of a series of works completed by Gauguin during his first stay on the Pacific island chain. Enamored by the environment and people of the islands and their separation from European cultural and aesthetic attitudes, Gauguin portrays two figures shrouded in the mystery and symbolism of Tahiti's paradise.
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.
Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude 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.
Two Tahitian Women is an 1899 painting by Paul Gauguin. It depicts two topless women, one holding mango blossoms, on the Pacific Island of Tahiti. The painting is part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and was donated to the museum by William Church Osborn in 1949.
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.
Vahine no te vi is an 1892 painting by Paul Gauguin, currently in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. It is one of the earliest of about seventy paintings he produced during his first visit to Tahiti and is one of many works of modern art in the museum's Cone Collection.
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.
Arii Matamoe or The Royal End 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. A curator for the J. Paul Getty Museum suggested Gauguin likely painted the canvas "to shock Parisians" upon his expected return to the city.
Aha Oe Feii? or Are You Jealous? is an oil-on-canvas 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.
A Man with an Axe is an 1891 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in a Swiss private collection. It is one his first major paintings from his Tahiti period being painted shortly after his arrival in Papeete. A study for it is now in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Eiaha Ohipa is an 1896 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in Pushkin Museum, Moscow. It was produced during his second stay in Tahiti
Parau na te varaua ino is an 1892 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, produced during the artist's first stay on Tahiti. It is now in the National Gallery of Art
Still Life with Exotic Birds is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, produced in Atuona on Hiva-Oa in the Marquesas Islands, in 1902. It is held in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow. It is signed "Paul Gauguin 1902" at bottom left, with the inscription "Oiseaux morts" on the back of the stretcher.
The Bunch of Flowers or Flowers of France is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, from 1891. It is held in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. It was one of the first in his series of Tahitian works.
Landscape with Peacocks (Death) (French - Le paysage aux paons (La mort)) is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, from 1892. It is held in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow.