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Paul Gauguin 1848-1903
Paul Gauguin - Tahitians at rest 1891
 Tahitians at rest |
From Tate Art Museum London:
This picture is hard to date exactly owing to its unfinished state and is also exceptional in being done in oil on paper, but most probably it was made about 1891 during Gauguin's first stay in Tahiti. Gauguin began his work in Tahiti by making a number of studies in order to come to terms with his new subject-matter. On 11 March 1892 he wrote to Daniel de Monfreid: 'I work more and more but so far only studies or rather documents ... If they aren't of use to me later they will be useful to others.' It can be compared, for instance, with 'Two Women on a Beach' (Musée du Louvre), 'Te Faaturuma' (Worcester Art Museum, USA) and 'Road in Tahiti' (Toledo Museum of Art), all of which are dated 1891. Wildenstein dates it 1894, that is to say during Gauguin's stay in France between his two visits to Tahiti, because of its analogies with 'Arearea No Varua Ino' (Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen) and particularly with 'The Siesta' (Mrs Ira Haupt collection, New York), which depicts four Tahitian women squatting or reclining on the floor of a similar hut. However 'The Siesta' is undated, and seems much more likely to have been painted earlier than 1894, while he was still in Tahiti.