Merahi metua no Tehamana (Tehamana Has Many Parents or The Ancestors of Tehamana)
<p>In this portrait, the 13-year-old Tahitian girl named Tehamana appears stoic, shoulders squared and gaze unflinching. She wears a missionary dress and wields a Samoan fan as white flowers tumble from her hair. The ripe mango beside her alludes to fertility. In the background, Gauguin combined various non-European emblems—glyphs derived from an Easter Island tablet and a female deity inspired by Polynesian and Hindu sources—to build a generic sense of foreigness and mystery, transforming Tehamana into the embodiment of his own desire.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1893
- Medium
- Oil on jute canvas
- Dimensions
- 75 × 53 cm (29 1/2 × 20 7/8 in.); Framed: 98.8 × 76.6 × 8.3 cm (38 7/8 × 30 1/8 × 3 1/4 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Paul Gauguin
Artist
Painting
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influential practitioner of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. While only moderately successful during his lifetime, Gauguin has since been recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism.
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1925 · Book with facsimile woodcuts on cream wove paper
The Invocation
1903 · oil on canvas
Angel, Peacock, and Three Tahitians
1902 · Transfer drawing in brown and black ink on cream Japanese paper
The Call
1902 · oil on fabric
Seated Female (related to the painting Sister of Charity)
1902 · Transfer drawing in black ink on ivory wove paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Paul Gauguin
- Year
- 1893
- Medium
- Oil on jute canvas
- Dimensions
- 75 × 53 cm (29 1/2 × 20 7/8 in.); Framed: 98.8 × 76.6 × 8.3 cm (38 7/8 × 30 1/8 × 3 1/4 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1893-013924
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified