How are you?
Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 68th story is “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” by Paul Gauguin.
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| Paul Gauguin |
“Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” is a painting by French artist Paul Gauguin. Created in Tahiti, this painting is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Regarded as one of Gauguin's masterpieces, the painting is considered a philosophical work comparable to the themes of the Gospels and emphasizes Gauguin's pioneering Post-Impressionistic style.
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| Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
This painting is famous for its enigmatic subject and atmosphere. Some scholars explained that this characteristic stems from personal difficulties Gauguin experienced while painting this work.
From the age of 11 to 16, Gauguin studied at the Petit Séminaire de La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, outside Orléans. Among the classes, there was a class in Catholic liturgy, which was taught by the Bishop of Orléans, Félix-Antoine-Philibert Dupanloup. Dupanloup had devised his own catechism for students to lead them towards appropriate spiritual reflections on the nature of life. The three fundamental questions in this catechism were "where does humanity come from?", "where is it going to?", and "how does humanity proceed?" Although in his later years Gauguin was vociferously anticlerical, these questions from Dupanloup's catechism took hold in his mind, and in particular "where?" became the central question asked by Gauguin in his art.
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| Portrait of Félix Dupanloup (c. 1876) |
Gauguin left for Tahiti in 1891 in search of a simpler and more primitive society than his native France. He completed this painting in 1897, but in the process of creating this painting he personally faced a number of difficulties. For example, he suffered from medical conditions including eczema, syphilis, and conjunctivitis, faced financial difficulties, and was told that his daughter had died. Gauguin revealed his plan to commit suicide in a letter to his friend, Daniel de Monfreid, but before that, since he wanted to paint a large-scale painting that would represent the pinnacle of his thoughts, he attempted suicide after he had completed this painting.
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| Tahiti |
In this painting, which can be divided into three major groups, all the groups reflect the overall themes presented in the title of this painting.
On the right side of the painting, three women crouching next to a sleeping baby represent the beginning of life, and the middle group of the painting symbolizes the daily existence of young adulthood. On the left of the painting, an old woman approaching death appears to have reconciled with everything and resigned to her thoughts, and the white bird at her feet represents “the futility of words.” The painting also shows the cycle of "birth-sin-death" of humans from right to left.
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| Daniel de Monfreid |
It implies Gauguin approaches human life from a woman's perspective. The girl next to the kittens shows the innocence of girlhood. The woman picking fruits from a tree in the center of the painting appears to have been inspired by "The Garden of Eden," and Gauguin attempted to portray this woman as the allegory of Eve, in original human sin.
Gauguin expressed the maternity of a woman through the women surrounding the baby, and through the bracelet and collar worn by the mature woman and the goat, respectively, showed the concept of domestic submission, and the old woman on the left shows the state of seniority.
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| Gauguin's grave, Atuona, Hiva ‘Oa, French Polynesia |
Between the three women on the right and the woman picking fruits from a tree are two women standing by the tree and a woman sitting crouching with arms raised. One scholar interpreted these three women as representing the contrast between "enlightenment" and "traditions that are superstitious, irrational, and even barbaric."
This painting also contains some inscriptions. In the upper left corner, Gauguin wrote the original French title of this painting, “D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous”, and in the upper right corner he wrote his sign and the date of the painting as “P. Gauguin / 1897”.
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| Gauguin's home at Atuona, Paul Gauguin Cultural Center |
Thank you.
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