How are you?
Currently, I am introducing
the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title
“Interesting Art Stories”.
The 77th story is “Two
Tahitian Women” by Paul Gauguin.
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| Self Portrait with the Idol, Paul Gauguin |
“Two Tahitian Women” is an 1899 painting by Paul Gauguin. The painting depicts two women living on the Pacific Island of Tahiti, among which one is holding mango blossoms.
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| Tahitian Islands |
This
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.
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
In this painting, Tahiti is portrayed as an innocent paradise and two women are looking at the viewer in a manner similar to that in “Le déjeuner sur l'herbe” (1863) or “Olympia” (1863) by Manet.
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| Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Édouard Manet (1863) |
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| Olympia, Édouard Manet (1863) |
The
two women also follow an artistic tradition of comparing woman's breasts to
flowers or fruits. The women in this painting also appear in Gauguin's two
other paintings such as "Faa Iheihe (Tahitian Pastoral, 1898)” and “Rupe,
Rupe (The Fruit Harvest, 1899)”.
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| Faa Iheihe, Paul Gauguin (1898) |
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| Rupe, Rupe, Paul Gauguin (1899) |
The painting was attacked on April 1, 2011
while on loan at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., but due to the
protection of the plexiglass, the painting was not harmed.
Thank you.
