Shop art print and framed art Fatata te Miti (By The Sea) by Paul Gauguin

Fatata te miti ("By the sea" in Tahitian) is an oil on canvas by the French painter Paul Gauguin, painted in 1892. Currently housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the painting depicts two Tahitian women bathing. Originally acquired by Ernest Rouart, the painting was later owned by Chester Dale, who bequeathed his art collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 1962. The painting depicts two Tahitian women, seen from behind, bathing in the ocean, with a man spearfishing in the background. It illustrates the romantic image of Tahitians made famous by Pierre Loti's Le mariage de Loti: in this novel, Loti describes the activities of his Tahitian fiancée as follows: "Her occupations were very simple: daydreaming, bathing, especially bathing". The women in the painting take off their pareos to bathe naked, seemingly indifferent to the proximity of the fisherman"; this is an illustration of the liberated tropical paradise that Gauguin had hoped to find, whereas in reality Polynesian culture had been transformed by the Western missionaries who imposed their religion and values on the islanders;" Paul Gauguin painted Fatata te miti in 1892, during his first trip to Tahiti. Like Vahine no te vi from the same period, it is an example of the few simple genre scenes that Gauguin painted as soon as he set up his studio in a traditional bamboo hut in Mataiea, in the Papeari district. Nevertheless, as Gauguin's biographer Nancy Mowll Mathews has pointed [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the post-impressionism style.

 

« Fatata te Miti (By The Sea) » is kept at National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.

 

Find the full description of Fatata te Miti (By The Sea) by Paul Gauguin on Wikipedia.