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 3/4 x 35 1/8 in

Classification:: Paintings

Credit Line:: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975

Accession Number:: 1975.1.179

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 962

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.

Inscription: Signed (lower right): P.Gauguin / .

Ambroise Vollard, Paris; Alphonse Kann, Saint-Germain-en-Laye; Galerie Barbazanges, Paris; M. Oliver, Esq., London; Bignou Gallery, New York, by 1935; Josiah Marvel, Jr., Philadelphia; acquired through M. Knoedler & Co., New York, by Robert Lehman, New York, May 1950.

Essays
Impressionism: Art and Modernity
Japonisme
The Nabis and Decorative Painting
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
Post–Impressionism
The Print in the Nineteenth Century
Symbolism
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890): The Drawings

Timelines
France, 1800–1900 A.D.

European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue
The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections
The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 3, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Paintings

Department

Robert Lehman Collection (2,589)

Artist / Maker / Culture

Paul Gauguin (73)

Object Type / Material

Canvas (4,783)

Oil paintings (3,008)

Geographic Location

Date / Era

A.D. 1800–1900 (106,859)

Swept frame

Date: ca. 1735–45 Medium: Oak lower moldings; lime upper moldings. Carved, gilt; orange bole. Accession: 1975.1.2533 On view in:Gallery 962

A Tahitian Woman with a Flower in Her Hair

Artist: Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands) Date: 1891–92 Medium: Charcoal, pastel, and wash Accession: 67.187.13 On view in:Not on view

Hail Mary (Ia Orana Maria)

Artist: Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands) Date: ca. 1893–95 Medium: Fabricated charcoal, red chalk, and white pastel on formerly blue wove paper, mounted on millboard with strips of rose-colored wove paper along two edges Accession: 61.145.2 On view in:Not on view

Walking stick with a female nude and a Breton sabot on the handle

Artist: Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands) Date: ca. 1888–90 Medium: Boxwood, mother-of-pearl [Pinctada margaritifera (black-lip pearl oyster)], glass, and iron Accession: 67.187.45a, b On view in:Not on view

The Artist's Portfolio, Pont Aven

Artist: Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands) Date: 1894 Medium: Two inside covers decorated in watercolor and gouache over charcoal with graphite on heavy gray wove (blotting) paper sewn to leather; leather binding inscribed in pen and ink with additions in watercolor; multicolored silk ribbons stitched into binding. Accession: 2000.255 On view in:Not on view