Two Tahitian Women

Two Tahitian Women is an oil on canvas that Paul Gauguin painted in 1899, during his second stay in Tahiti. It shows two standing women, bare-chested, filling almost the entire foreground against a plain, abstract background. The woman on the left holds a bowl of red fruit or flowers, of uncertain identity, just beneath her breasts; the one on the right carries a bunch of pink mango blossoms, her hands arranged in a gesture that suggests a reverent pose. The figure on the left is probably Pahura, one of Gauguin's companions, though this is not certain.

What stands out is the way the painter combines dignity and sensuality. The women are not shown in a scene of everyday life or intimacy. They stand upright, calm and self-possessed, and their bodies are organised through vertical lines and soft curves that give them a sculptural quality. The empty background draws attention to the figures and to the red fruit, which provides the only intense note of colour and heightens the erotic charge of the composition. In Noa Noa, Gauguin described the Tahitian women in terms of a almost classical gravity, and that idea comes through clearly in the picture.

The painting is also tied to other works by the artist. Its figures reappear in Faa Iheihe (Tahitian Pastoral) of 1898, Rupe Rupe and other canvases of 1899, showing that Gauguin often reused models and poses, sometimes painting from memory after many preliminary drawings. For the figure on the right, a photograph of a frieze at Borobudur temple in Java has been suggested as a source, though that attribution should be treated with caution. The work was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1949, where it remains today.

Painter

Paul Gauguin

Date

1899

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

94 × 72 cm

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Genre

genre art

Depicts

mango, standing, nude, woman, flower, tray, toplessness

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