Tahiti: 'Two Tahitian Women', Paul Gauguin (1899)

Two Tahitian Women is an 1899 painting by Paul Gauguin. The painting depicts two topless women, one holding mango blossoms, on the Pacific Island of Tahiti. Currently, the painting is housed at the National Gallery of Art, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Paul Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848 and spent some of his childhood in Peru. He worked as a stockbroker with little success, and suffered from bouts of severe depression. He also painted. In 1891, Gauguin, frustrated by lack of recognition at home and financially destitute, sailed to the tropics to escape European civilization and 'everything that is artificial and conventional'. His time there, particularly in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, was the subject of much interest both then and in modern times due to his alleged sexual exploits. He was known to have had trysts with several native girls, some of whom appear as subjects of his paintings. Gauguin died on 8 May 1903 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery (Cimetière Calvaire), Atuona, Hiva ‘Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History

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FATAL IMPACT