Paul Gauguin - Three Tahitians 1899

Three Tahitians 1899
Three Tahitians
1899 73x94cm oil/canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

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From National Galleries of Scotland:
Three three-quarter length figures stand out against a vivid, colourful background. Two women flank a young man, seen from behind. They may be offering him a choice, possibly between vice, symbolised by the apple, and virtue, symbolised by the flowers. This suggestion ties in with the allegorical character of many of Gauguin's Tahitian paintings in which ideas from different cultures are fused together. Gauguin used the same two young women as models in other paintings made around the same time, during his second period in Tahiti from 1895-1901.