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Tahitian Women Bathing

1892
Not on view
Dreaming of a paradise where he could “listen to the silence of beautiful tropical nights,” Gauguin set off for Tahiti in June 1891. While at first Tahitian Women Bathing resembles the artist’s Polynesian paintings, it was not painted in oil on canvas, but rather in oil on paper, and was begun as a sheet of working drawings. The large sheet was later mounted on canvas, retouched, and varnished, presumably to ready the work for sale. The unusual evolution of this picture from a sheet of working drawings provides insight into the artist’s methodology as a draftsman and painter, and also accounts for its compositional disharmony.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tahitian Women Bathing
  • Artist: Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands)
  • Date: 1892
  • Medium: Oil on paper, laid down on canvas
  • Dimensions: 43 1/4 × 35 1/4 in. (109.9 × 89.5 cm)
    Framed: 55 1/8 × 46 7/16 in. (140 × 118 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.1.179
  • Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection

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