Paul Gauguin

Bathers at Tahiti

Tahiti, 1897

Oil on sacking

73.3 x 91.8 cm

This is one of eight paintings that relate to the monumental canvas Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, a summation of Gauguin’s philosophy of life, civilization and sexuality.  The paintings were described as ‘fragmentary replicas of and studies for’ the larger work when they were exhibited together in 1898.  In this case, the figure to the left is enlarged from the part of the landscape background which deals with our fate – Where Are We Going?

The landscape of Tahiti is painted here in broad, hazy brushstrokes and vibrant greens and reds, to expressive effect. Gauguin executed this work on his second trip to the Pacific island. The female figures look out at the viewer, but there is no sense of them as individuals.

In 2023, artist Claudette Johnson said:

“The effect of the work that Gauguin did in Tahiti, the way that it presented an outsider view of Tahitian women, is the opposite of what I am doing, in that I am kind of working from the inside. I don’t have the same objectifying lens. I am working with a different kind of power, really”.

Purchased 1949 (No.49.9)