Te Nave, Nave Fenua [The Delightful Land]

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Te Nave, Nave Fenua [The Delightful Land]

Description

Gauguin exhibited a painting of this subject in Paris in 1893, which he then adapted first as a print and than in a series of drawings and monotypes. This work is believed to date to c. 1894. The painting posits a confrontation of Christian and Polynesian culture. The young nude girl, with a flying lizard hovering beside her face, is interpreted as a Tahitian Eve, a free translation of the theme of temptation in a tropical setting. The landscape is a delicate composition of horizontal grey lines that hint at the fantastically foliated setting, highlighted with touches of pink, mauve and blue wash. The watercolour is signed, lower left, with woodcut seal of the artist, PGO.

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