Vahine no te miti (1892) by Gauguin PaulMuseo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Argentina
An unusual, exotic, almost timeless subject. So far from the models of the coeval painters in the worldly Paris of the late 19th century! What was Paul Gauguin seeking in Tahiti, thousands of kilometers away from the core of the art of his time?
The nude stands out against a background almost limited to two bands of color: the beach and the sea. A simple style that reflects the spiritual purity of the scene: a harmony between man and nature, uncontaminated by the trickeries of modern life.
Gauguin tried to depict the authenticity of a world which was primordial to his mind, through techniques of archaic inspiration. The flat backgrounds of color and thick contours recall the medieval stained-glass windows.
Likewise, the bright yellow of the sand evokes the golden backgrounds of ancient religious icons. This is the real subject for the artist: not a woman by the sea, but a sacred image. A new spirituality is reborn from the contact between man and nature.
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