Post-Impressionism1897
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
Paul Gauguin
Curator's Eye
"The work stands out for its exceptional frieze format and its upper corners painted in yellow, bearing the title and signature, thus imitating an ancient mural fresco with chipped corners."
A true philosophical testament painted on burlap, this monumental masterpiece synthesizes Gauguin’s quest for a lost paradise and his existential anguish toward death. Read from right to left, the artist traces the cycle of human life within an oneiric Tahitian setting.
Analysis
Painted in 1897 in a state of absolute despair, this work was conceived by Gauguin as his ultimate legacy before a suicide attempt with arsenic. The artist deploys a personal cosmogony where the sacred and the profane intertwine. The cycle begins on the right with a sleeping newborn guarded by Tahitian women, symbolizing innocence and origin. In the center, an androgynous figure picks a fruit, evoking the myth of the Fall but reinterpreted through a pantheistic perspective where humanity communes with a lush and mysterious nature.
Iconographic analysis reveals a fusion between local Polynesian beliefs and Western archetypes. The presence of a blue idol in the background, representing the deity Hina, highlights Gauguin’s interest in Tahitian theogonies and the survival of the soul. The characters seem to float in a space without classical perspective, reinforcing the dreamlike and timeless dimension of the scene. This is not a mere representation of Tahiti, but an allegory of all humanity, lost in the contemplation of its own mysteries.
The artist uses a palette dominated by deep blues and greens that contrast with the orange bodies, creating an atmosphere of metaphysical twilight. Each figure appears isolated in their own reflection, illustrating the fundamental solitude of being. The old woman on the left, huddled and nearing death, closes the cycle initiated by the child. She is accompanied by a strange white bird holding a lizard, symbolizing the futility of words in the face of the great mystery of the end.
Finally, this canvas marks the pinnacle of Synthetism. Gauguin simplifies forms, uses flat areas of color, and rejects naturalism to achieve a deeper, more spiritual truth. It is a pictorial cry that questions humanity’s place in the universe, a visual meditation that transcends the boundaries of art to touch on pure philosophy. The rough texture of the burlap, chosen as much out of necessity as a taste for primitivism, adds a raw materiality to this spiritual message.
The most poignant secret lies in the physical state of the canvas. Gauguin, short on funds, used coarse burlap typically used for making sacks. This irregular material, full of knots, forced the artist to adapt his brushwork, giving the painting the appearance of an ancient fresco that has survived time. He considered this work so perfect that he claimed he could never do better, describing it as the result of a "mathematical fever."
Another secret concerns the reading of the work. Contrary to Western tradition, the painting must be read from right to left. Gauguin was inspired here by Oriental scrolls and the bas-reliefs of Khmer temples he had studied at the 1889 Universal Exposition. This inverted reading direction forces the viewer to deconstruct their visual habits to enter the cyclical time of primitive life, as opposed to the linear time of European industrial progress.
The central figure, often described as a woman, is actually intentionally androgynous. This choice reflects Gauguin’s fascination with the original unity of the sexes, a concept present in many primitive myths. This being is neither Adam nor Eve, but a representation of humanity at its peak, still connected to the sources of life before civilization imposed its dualities and taboos.
Finally, the suicide attempt that followed the completion of the canvas failed because the dose of arsenic ingested was too strong, causing immediate rejection by his stomach. Gauguin survived his own testament, condemned to live with the imminent posthumous glory of this work. The "chrome yellow" used in the corners for the title was also a bold choice, as this pigment was known to darken over time, a risk Gauguin accepted as an integral part of the organic life of his work.
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The narrative structure of this monumental frieze deviates from Western conventions. What is its unique reading direction and which major influence does it reveal?
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