Tahiti:'Manao Tupapau' (Spirit of the Dead Watching), Paul Gauguin (1892)

A Tahitian female lies naked on her stomach, frightened by the presence of the spirit of death. Behind her, with phosphorescent eyes, the spirit is personified in the form of an old woman dressed in a black shawl. According to island mythology, the title has two meanings: either the young girl is thinking of the ghost, or the ghost is thinking of her.

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.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History

Theme:

FATAL IMPACT