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Tahitian Faces (Frontal View and Profiles)

ca. 1899
Not on view
Gauguin made this powerful drawing during his second trip to Tahiti. Among the most impressive of Gauguin’s surviving drawings, it is likely a preparatory study for the figure on the left in his 1899 painting Two Tahitian Women (49.58.1). The drawing has a strong sculptural effect due to both the masklike appearance of the blank eye sockets and the artist’s use of the stumping technique, in which he smudged the charcoal contour lines to model the head.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tahitian Faces (Frontal View and Profiles)
  • Artist: Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands)
  • Date: ca. 1899
  • Medium: Charcoal on laid paper
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 16 1/8 x 12 1/4 in. (41 x 31.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 1996
  • Object Number: 1996.418
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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