Most likely started in May of 1892 during Gauguin’s first trip to Tahiti, this painting has provoked uncertainty among scholars for its unusual composition and medium. The composition is dominated by large, oddly proportioned figures. They are detached from one another as well as from their surroundings, remaining somewhat unearthly and autonomous. The painting was originally executed on inexpensive paper, which the artist often employed during his stay in Tahiti. Gauguin’s dealer, Ambroise Vollard, later lined the work of art with canvas and overpainted portions of the top left corner, presumably to make the painting more appropriate for sale if it was either damaged or left unfinished.

Both the medium and autonomy of figures is probably due to the fact that this painting began as a set of preparatory drawings, most likely for other paintings, which at some point the artist weaved into an original composition.

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.