The canvases that Gauguin sent back to France from the South Seas reflect the license he exercised in fashioning images of Indigenous women. Here, he channeled classicizing nudes, while relying on gesture and facial expression to evoke the ideal "Tahitian Eve" conjured in his writings: "very subtle, very knowing in her naïveté" and enviably "capable of walking around naked without shame." Whispering confidences, offering exotic blossoms or (forbidden) fruit, the women inhabit a tropical Eden of Gauguin’s invention, in which his artistic vision—and male gaze—hold sway. These two figures also appear in his monumental works Faa Iheihe (Tahitian Pastoral), 1898; (Tate, London) and Rupe Rupe (The Fruit Harvest), 1899; (Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow).
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Title:Two Tahitian Women
Artist:Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands)
Date:1899
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:37 x 28 1/2 in. (94 x 72.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of William Church Osborn, 1949
Object Number:49.58.1
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): 99 / PGauguin
Daniel de Monfreid (until 1900; sold in September to Fayet); Gustave Fayet, Igny, France (1900–ca. 1925); [Wildenstein, New York, ca. 1925–30]; William Church Osborn, New York (1930–49)
Weimar. Grossherzogliches Museum. "Ausstellung von Werken von Paul Gauguin," July 7–September 15, 1905, no. 17 (as "Tahitanerinnen").
Paris. Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées. "Salon d'Automne: Oeuvres de Gauguin," October 6–November 15, 1906, no. 14 (as "Deux Tahitiennes," lent by G. Fayet).
London. Grafton Galleries. "Manet and the Post-Impressionists," November 8, 1910–January 15, 1911, no. 44 (as "Deux Torses").
Amsterdam. Musée Municipal Suasso. "Catalogue des ouvrages de peinture, scuplture, dessin, gravure," October 6–November 7, 1912, no. 14? (as "Les négresses," lent by Mme J. Cohen Gosschalk-Bonger).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "French Art: 1200–1900," January 4–March 12, 1932, no. 536 (as "Deux Tahitiennes [Femmes aux Mangos]," lent by William Church Osborn, New York) [commemorative catalogue, 1933, no. 387].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Taste of Today in Masterpieces of Painting before 1900," July 10–October 2, 1932, no catalogue (lent by William Church Osborn).
Art Institute of Chicago. "A Century of Progress," June 1–November 1, 1933, no. 364 (lent by William Church Osborne, New York).
New York. Durand-Ruel. "Important Paintings by Great French Masters of the Nineteenth-century," February 12–March 10, 1934, no. 19 (as "Les Tahitiennes," lent anonymously).
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Museum of Art. "Post-Impressionists," February 2–March 13, 1935, no catalogue (lent by W. C. Osborn [see letter in archive file dated January 11, 1951]).
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "Paul Gauguin: 1848–1903," March 20–April 18, 1936, no. 41 (as "Tahitians with Mangoes," lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Church Osborn, New York City).
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Paul Gauguin: 1848–1903," May 1–21, 1936, no. 40 (as "Tahitiennes au Mango," lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Church Osborn, New York City).
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition," June 26–October 4, 1936, no. 281 (as "Tahitians with Mangoes," lent by William Church Osborn).
Paris. Palais National des Arts. "Chefs d'œuvre de l'art français," July–September 1937, no. 327 (as "Deux Tahitiennes: Femmes au Mango," lent by William Church Osborn, New-York).
New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European & American Paintings, 1500–1900," May–October 1940, no. 354 (lent by Mr. William Church Osborn).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Art in Progress," May 24–October 15, 1944, unnumbered cat. (as "Tahitian Girls [Women with Red Mango Blossoms]," lent by William Church Osborn).
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin," April 3–May 4, 1946, no. 35 (as "Tahitian Women with Red Mango," lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Church Osborn).
Paris. Orangerie des Tuileries. "Gauguin: Exposition du centenaire," 1949, no. 54.
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Paul Gauguin zum 100. Geburtsjahr," November 26, 1949–January 29, 1950, no. 61 (as "Die roten Blüten/Les seins aux fleurs rouges," lent by MMA).
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne. "Gauguin: Expostion du centenaire," February 16–April 16, 1950, no. 17.
Hempstead, N. Y. Hofstra College. "Metropolitan Museum Masterpieces," June 26–September 1, 1952, no. 37.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture," February 12–March 29, 1959, no. 64.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Gauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture," April 23–May 31, 1959, no. 64.
Stockholm. Etnografiska museet. "Gauguin i Söderhavet," March 5–May 10, 1970, no. 54 (as Les seins aux fleurs rouge).
Tokyo National Museum. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 10–October 1, 1972, no. 103.
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 8–November 26, 1972, no. 103.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic," October 30, 1973–January 6, 1974, no. 41.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 73.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 73.
Art Institute of Chicago. "The Art of Paul Gauguin," September 17–December 11, 1988, no. 230.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "The Art of Paul Gauguin," January 10–April 20, 1989, no. 230.
Essen. Museum Folkwang. "Paul Gauguin: Das verlorene Paradies," June 17–October 18, 1998, no. 49 (as "Zwei Tahitianerinnen / Les seins aux fleurs rouges").
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Paul Gauguin: Das verlorene Paradies," October 31, 1998–January 10, 1999, no. 49.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections," June 18–October 20, 2002, no. 105.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Gauguin Tahiti," September 30, 2003–January 19, 2004, no. 156.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Gauguin Tahiti," February 29–June 20, 2004, no. 156.
London. Tate Modern. "Gauguin: Maker of Myth," September 30, 2010–January 16, 2011, no. 145.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Gauguin: Maker of Myth," February 27–June 5, 2011, no. 145.
Madrid. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. "Gauguin y el viaje a lo exótico," October 9, 2012–January 13, 2013, no. 14.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Gauguin: Metamorphoses," March 8–June 8, 2014, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 164).
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. "Paul Gauguin: The Other and I," April 28–August 6, 2023, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 129).
LOAN OF THIS WORK IS RESTRICTED.
Paul Gauguin. Letter to Georges-Daniel de Monfreid. 189? [Ref. Wildenstein 1964 refers to "Lettres de Paul Gauguin à Georges-Daniel de Monfreid," édition 1950, p. 152].
Paul Jamot. "Le Salon d'Automne." Gazette des beaux-arts, 3rd ser., 36 (1906), p. 471, ill., relates this picture to "Three Tahitian Women" of 1897 (MMA 1997.60.3).
Jean de Rotonchamp. Paul Gauguin, 1848–1903. Paris, 1906, ill. (between pp. 112–13).
Marius-Ary Leblond. Peintres de Races. Brussels, 1909, pp. 220, 227–28, refers to a painting in the Fayet collection in which one of the Tahitian women presents a basket of flowers at the height of her breasts, probably this picture.
C. Lewis Hind. The Post Impressionists. London, 1911, ill. p. 34, as "Women of Tahiti".
Just Havelaar. "Paul Gauguin." Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 22, no. 44 (July–December 1912), p. 412, ill., as "Vrouwen van Tahiti," in the exhibition of Gauguin's work at the Moderne Kunst-Kring in Amsterdam.
Charles Louis Borgmeyer. The Master Impressionists. Chicago, 1913, ill. p. 277, as "Women of Tahiti".
Charles Morice. Paul Gauguin. first ed. [new ed. 1920]. Paris, 1919, ill. between pp. 108–9, as "Les seins aux fleurs rouges".
Paul Gauguin. Noa Noa. New York, 1919, ill. opp. p. 12, as "Girl with Fruit-Dish".
J[ean].-G[abriel]. Goulinat. "Les collections Gustave Fayet." L'amour de l'art 6 (January 1925), p. 134, ill. p. 141, as "Les femmes au mango".
Pierre Girieud, ed. Paul Gauguin. Les Albums d'art Druet, Vol. 12, Paris, [1928], unpaginated, ill., as both "Porteuses des fleurs" and "Les deux porteuses de fleurs".
A. Alexandre. Paul Gauguin, sa vie et le sens de son oeuvre. Paris, 1930, pp. 185, 259, ill., as "Et l'or de leur corps".
"Whole Century of French Painting Presented in the Progress Exhibit." Art Digest 7 (May 15, 1933), ill. p. 23, as "Two Tahitian Women" lent by William Church Osborn.
Pola Gauguin. My Father Paul Gauguin. first American ed. [Norwegian ed. (?)]. New York, 1937, ill. opp. p. 172, erroneously dates it 1892.
Charles Sterling inChefs d'œuvre de l'art français. Exh. cat., Palais National des Arts. Paris, 1937, pp. 162–63, no. 327.
Martin Tow. Tainted Paradise: A Study of the Life and Art of Paul Gauguin. New York, 1937, pp. 159–60, ill. opp. p. 118, calls it "The Crimson-flowered Breasts" and dates it 1892.
R. H. Wilenski. Modern French Painters. New York, [1940], pp. 133, 138, pl. 45A, considers this and "Three Tahitian Women" more European than earlier Tahitian works.
Raymond Cogniat. Gauguin. Paris, 1947, pl. 105, dates it 1889.
Maurice Malingue. Gauguin: Le peintre et son oeuvre. Paris, 1948, p. 48, unnumbered colorpl., as "Les Seins aux Fleurs Rouges".
Henri Perruchot. Gauguin: Sa vie ardente et misérable. Paris, 1948, pp. 221, 298, unnumbered pl. (between pp. 240–41), as "Les seins aux fleurs rouges" in the W. Church Osborn collection.
Jean Leymarie. Gauguin. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1949, pp. 64–65, no. 54, pl. XXI.
Georg Schmidt. Paul Gauguin zum 100. Geburtsjahr. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel?, [1949], pp. 42, no. 61, pl. 28, calls it "Die roten Blüten/Les seins aux fleurs rouges" and includes it with works painted during Gauguin's second sojourn in Tahiti.
Jean Leymarie. "Musée de l'Orangerie: Exposition Gauguin." Musées de France (June 1949), pp. 111–12, ill.
Frank Elgar. Gauguin. Paris, 1949, unpaginated, no. 14, pl. 14.
Lee van Dovksi [Herbert Lewandowski]. Paul Gauguin oder die Flucht vor der Zivilisation. Delphi, 1950, p. 353, no. 357, as "Les seins aux fleurs rouges".
Bernard Dorival. "Sources of the Art of Gauguin from Java, Egypt and Ancient Greece." Burlington Magazine 93 (April 1951), p. 121, notes that the women's stances are based on a Javanese relief at Borobudur, a photograph of which was found among the artist's possessions.
Henri Dorra. "Ia Orana Maria." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 10 (May 1952), pp. 257–59, ill.
Fritz Novotny. Die Grossen Französischen Impressionisten, Ihre Vorlaüfer Und Ihre Nachfolge
. Vienna, 1952, p. 60, no. 37, ill. (color).
Henri Dorra. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures: Paul Gauguin, 1848–1903. Album MG, New York, 1953, unpaginated, fig. 12 (color).
Bernard Dorival, ed. Carnet de Tahiti.. By Paul Gauguin. facsimile of Gauguin's Carnet de Tahiti. Paris, 1954, vol. 1, p. 62, note for p. 39, notes that his student Mme Thirion, in an unpublished thesis, established that Gauguin took his inspiration for this picture from a drawing by H. Gray, "La marchande de pommes," illustrated in the Courrier français, 1884, no. 30.
Lawrence Hanson and Elisabeth Hanson. Noble Savage: The Life of Paul Gauguin. New York, 1954, pp. 250, 263, ill., identify the woman on the left as Pahura, one of Gauguin's native "wives".
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 41.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), pp. 7, 54, ill.
Herbert Read. "Gauguin: Return to Symbolism." Art News Annual 25 (November 1955), pp. 123, 144, ill. (color).
Georges Wildenstein. "L'idéologie et l'esthetique dans deux tableaux—clés de Gauguin." Gazette des beaux-arts 47 (1956), pp. 137, 157, fig. 25, finds the same sitters and poses in several other paintings.
Robert J. Goldwater. Paul Gauguin. 1st ed. [concise ed. 1983]. New York, [1957], pp. 152–53, ill. (color).
Henri Perruchot. Gauguin, Tahiti. Paris, 1958, unpaginated, colorpl. 11.
Claus Virch and Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. inGauguin: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1959, p. 56, no. 64, ill., note that the Javanese figures at Borobudur were the inspiration for these figures as well as those that appeared in "Faa Iheihe" of 1898 (W 569; Courtauld Institute, London) and "Rupe Rupe" (W585; Pushkin Museum, Moscow); remark that the figure on the left is also shown in a wooden sculpture, in a monotype in a manuscript, and in a woodcut used as the masthead for an issue of "La Sourire".
John Richardson. "Gauguin at Chicago and New York." Burlington Magazine 101 (May 1959), p. 191.
René Huyghe et al., ed. Gauguin. Paris, 1961, pp. 60, 254, ill.
Bernard Dorival inGauguin. Paris, 1961, pp. 60, 124, 181, ill., reproduces a color image of "La marchande de pommes" by M. Gray, which appeared on the cover of two issues of the "Courrier français" in 1884 and 1885, and remarks that Mme Thirion had shown that the illustration had a direct influence on the figure on the left in this picture.
Henri Perruchot. La vie de Gauguin. [Paris], 1961, pp. 334, 393, as "Les Seins aux Fleurs rouges".
Lawrence Hanson and Elisabeth Hanson. The Seekers: Gauguin, van Gogh, Cézanne. New York, 1963, pp. 284–85.
Georges Wildenstein. Gauguin. Vol. 1, French ed. [English ed. 1965]. Paris, 1964, p. 246, no. 583, ill., calls it "Les Seins aux fleurs rouge"; catalogues it in detail, citing several drawings and paintings with figures similar to those represented here.
Raymond Charmet. Gauguin. [Verviers, Belgium], 1965, pp. 80, 87, ill. p. 53.
Patrick O'Reilly. Catalogue du Musée Gauguin, Papeari, Tahiti. Paris, 1965, p. 71, illustrates a copy of this painting given to the museum by Mrs. Chester Dale.
Phoebe Pool. Gauguin. [London], 1966, colorpl. XII, suggests that it was probably of such figures that Gauguin wrote to Strindberg,"The Eve I have painted—she and she alone—can remain naturally naked before us. Yours, in this simple state, could not move without a feeling of shame".
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 176–78, ill.
Alfred Werner. Paul Gauguin. New York, 1967, pp. 44–45, no. 16, ill., calls it "Two Tahitian Women (Femmes aux Mangos)" and erroneously dates it 1889; contrasts Gauguin's standards of beauty with those of other nineteenth-century French artists.
Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill.
Françoise Cachin. Gauguin. Paris, 1968, pp. 301–3, 349 n. 24, ill.
Patrik Reuterswärd, et al. Gauguin i Söderhavet [Gauguin in the South Sea Islands]. Exh. cat., Etnografiska Museet and Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, 1970, p. 95, no. 54, fig. 75.
Wayne Andersen and Barbara Klein. Gauguin's Paradise Lost. New York, 1971, pp. 247–48, pl. 125, as "Tahitian Women with Flowers".
G. M. Sugana. L'opera completa di Gauguin. 2nd ed. [1st ed., 1969; Engl. ed, 1973]. Milan, 1972, p. 112, no. 399, ill. p. 110, colorpl. IL.
Linda Nochlin. "Eroticism and Female Imagery in Nineteenth-Century Art." Woman as Sex Object: Studes in Erotic Art, 1730–1970. Ed. Thomas B. Hess and Linda Nochlin. New York, 1972, pp. 8–9, 11, ill. (color detail).
Kuno Mittelstädt. Paul Gauguin. Berlin, 1973, unpaginated, no. 25, ill., calls it "Mädchen mit Mangoblüten".
Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, p. 21.
Pierre Leprohon. Paul Gauguin. Paris, 1975, pp. 271–72, 330.
100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum [in Russian]. Exh. cat., State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. Moscow, 1975, pp. 195–97, no. 73, ill. (color), remarks that Gauguin's emphasis with these Maori women is their beauty, where usually he concentrates on their strength.
Elda Fezzi. Gauguin: Every Painting, II. New York, 1980, p. 76, no. 555, ill. pp. 77, 85 (color and b/w), as "Two Tahitian Women or 'Les Seins aux Fleurs rouges'".
Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock. Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology. New York, 1981, p. 119, fig. 71, as "Tahitian Women with Mango Fruits".
Robert Goldwater. Paul Gauguin. concise ed. [lst ed. 1957]. New York, 1983, p. 120, ill. (color).
Patrik Reuterswärd. "Gauguin och den tahitiska kvinnan." Konsthistorisk tidskrift (1984), pp. 82–84, ill., uses it as an example of the more mature and realistic approach that followed Gauguin's suicide attempt of New Year's Eve, 1897.
Ziva Amishai-Maisels. Gauguin's Religious Themes. PhD diss., Hebrew University. New York, 1985, p. 248, states that the subject of the painting is Paradise Regained.
Yann le Pichon. Sur les traces de Gauguin. Paris, 1986, ill. p. 198 (color detail), erroneously dates it 1889.
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, pp. 5, 76, ill. (color), identify the woman to the left as Gauguin's mistress Pahura; remark that the pose of the woman on the right appears in several works Gauguin painted between 1896 and 1899, and note that the position of her hands derives from carvings on the Javanese temple of Borobudur.
Yann le Pichon. Gauguin: Life, Art, Inspiration. New York, 1987, pp. 198–99, no. 375, ill. (color), reproduces a photograph of two Tahitian women in clothing and poses similar to those in this painting.
Richard Brettell inThe Art of Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1988, pp. 253, 424–25, no. 230, ill. (color), discusses various possible sources for the two figures; relates two charcoal drawings to the heads of the figures, one whose whereabouts is unknown (ill. p. 425) and one in a private collection (cat. no. 124); mentions that the figure on the left appears in a carving from about 1892 (Hirshhorn Museum, Washington); adds that since in traditional Polynesian society men and women were forbidden to eat together, the picture may be interpreted as a "private viewing of a female realm".
Pierre Daix. Paul Gauguin. [Paris], 1989, pp. 304, 306–7, ill., compares its feeling to that of Giorgione's "Concert champêtre".
Joseph J. Rishel inMasterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, and Mark Rosenthal. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1991, p. 194 n. 7.
Anna G. Barskaya and Albert G. Kostenevich. The Hermitage Catalogue of Western European Painting: French Painting, Mid-Nineteenth to Twentienth [sic] Centuries. Florence, 1991, pp. 171–72, remark that Gauguin repeated the gesture of the woman on the right in several other works, including three in the Hermitage.
Pierre-Francis Schneeberger. Gauguin – Tahiti. Paris, 1991, pp. 52, 56, ill. (color).
Roseline Bacou inGauguin: Actes du colloque Gauguin. Paris, 1991, pp. 17–18, 48 n. 59, notes that in September 1900 Fayet purchased from Monfried two paintings by Gauguin, this picture and "Three Tahitians".
Peter Brooks. "Gauguin's Tahitian Body." The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History. Ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard. New York, 1992, p. 343, ill.
Ingo F. Walther. Paul Gauguin, 1848–1903: The Primitive Sophisticate. Cologne, 1993, pp. 80–81, 85.
Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Part I. Sotheby's, New York. November 8, 1994, unpaginated, under no. 13, relates it to a drawing titled "Tahitiennes" of circa 1891–93.
Asya Kantor-Gukovskaya inPaul Gauguin, Mysterious Affinities. English ed. (Russian ed. 1995). Bournemouth, 1995, pp. 63, 150.
Claudia Beltramo and Ceppi Zevi, ed. Paul Gauguin e l'avanguardia russa. Exh. cat.Florence, 1995, pp. 120, 122, 124, 126.
David Sweetman. Paul Gauguin: A Complete Life. London, 1995, pp. 474–75, 478, 488.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 491, ill.
Anna Maria Damigella. Paul Gauguin, La vita e l'opera. Milan, 1997, pp. 30, 207, 242–43, ill. (color).
Michael Bockemühl inPaul Gauguin: Das verlorene Paradies. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Cologne, 1998, pp. 113, 115, 323, no. 49, ill. (color).
Paul Gauguin, Tahiti. Ed. Christoph Becker. Exh. cat., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Stuttgart, 1998, pp. 76–77, 81, 168, no. 55, ill. (color), discusses the painting in the context of Gauguin's work of the second period in Tahiti, beginning in 1895; remarks on the eerie silence in these melancholy later paintings and calls the blossoms or fruit in the bowl a sacrifice.
Patricia Mathews. Passionate Discontent: Creativity, Gender, and French Symbolist Art. Chicago, 1999, pp. 176–77, 199, 207, 280 n. 60, colorpl. 9, discusses the nature of the painting's eroticism and outlines the differing approaches to depicting nude women of color in it and Suzanne Valadon's "Nude Black Woman" (1919, Musée de Menton, France).
Peter Kropmanns. "The Gauguin Exhibition in Weimar in 1905." Burlington Magazine 141 (January 1999), pp. 25, 26, 31, lists it as among works that were on view in Weimar 1905 as number 17, "Tahitanerinnen (Les seins aux fleurs rouges)".
Elizabeth C. Childs inAntimodernism and Artistic Experience: Policing the Boundaries of Modernity. Ed. Lynda Jessup. Toronto, 2001, pp. 57–58, 68 nn. 39–40, fig. 3.7.
Nancy Mowll Mathews. Paul Gauguin: An Erotic Life. New Haven, 2001, p. 229, fig. 71 (color).
Colta Ives in Colta Ives and Susan Alyson Stein. The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, p. 224, no. 105, ill. p. 131 (color).
Susan Alyson Stein in Colta Ives and Susan Alyson Stein. The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, pp. 171, 229 n. 43, p. 230, fig. 66 (installation photo).
Charlotte Hale in Colta Ives and Susan Alyson Stein. The Lure of the Exotic: Gauguin in New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2002, p. 189.
Paule Laudon. Tahiti—Gauguin: Mythe et vérités. Paris, 2003, pp. 119–20, ill. (color).
Kenneth White. "Parvenir à la béatitude." Paul Gauguin: Héritage et confrontations. Papeete, 2003, pp. 225–26.
George T. M. Shackelford in George T. M. Shackelford and Claire Frèches-Thory. Gauguin Tahiti. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Boston, 2004, pp. 197–200, 356, no. 156, ill. (color).
Colin Rhodes. "Paul Gauguin: Paris and Boston." Burlington Magazine 146 (February 2004), p. 127, as "Two Tahitians".
Jean-François Staszak. Gauguin voyageur: du Pérou aux îles Marquises. Paris, 2006, ill. p. 106 (color detail).
Riccardo Pineri. L'île matière de Polynésie. Papeete, 2006, p. 86, ill. p. 87 (color), as "Les seins aux fleurs rouges".
Geneviève Lacambre inIl Simbolismo da Moreau a Gauguin a Klimt. Exh. cat., Palazzo dei Diamanti. Ferrara, 2007, p. 120.
Abigail Solomon-Godeau inPaul Gauguin: Artist of Myth and Dream. Ed. Stephen F. Eisenman. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2007, p. 77.
Susan Alyson Stein inMasterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 167, 251–52, no. 155, ill. (color and black and white).
Christine I. Oaklander. "Jonathan Sturges, W. H. Osborn, and William Church Osborn: A Chapter in American Art Patronage." Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008), pp. 188–89, 191, fig. 25 (color).
Bruce Altshuler, ed. Salon to Biennial—Exhibitions That Made Art History, 1863–1959. Vol. 1, London, 2008, p. 87, reproduces London 1910 catalogue page.
Joseph J. Rishel inMasterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein and Asher Ethan Miller. 4th rev. ed. [1st ed., 1989]. New York, 2009, p. 189 n. 7.
Anna Gruetzner Robins. "'Manet and the Post-Impressionists': a checklist of exhibits." Burlington Magazine 152 (December 2010), p. 786, identifies it as among the Gauguins on view at the Grafton Galleries, London, exhibition "Manet and the Post-Impressionists" of 1910 based on contemporary press illustrations of the exhibition.
Roger Cardinal. "Gauguin." Burlington Magazine 152 (December 2010), p. 806.
Paloma Alarcó et al. Gauguin y el viaje a lo exótico. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. [Madrid], 2012, pp. 99, 112–13, no. 14, ill. (color).
Elizabeth C. Childs. Vanishing Paradise: Art and Exoticism in Colonial Tahiti. Berkeley, 2013, pp. 98, 264 nn. 29, 30, colorpl 6, compares The Met's picture to its source photographs of the Borobudur temple reliefs from Gauguin's collection and notes that his borrowing of subservient ritual poses from the relief would have invited his contemporaries to read the picture acccording to then-circulating European conventions of orientalism.
Starr Figura. Gauguin: Metamorphoses. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 2014, pp. 196, 229, colorpl. 164, notes that its palette of jewel tones offsets the models' skintones; discusses the fruits and flowers depicted as fertility symbols; observes that such toga-like dresses were not worn by Tahitians or Marquesans.
Lukas Gloor inPaul Gauguin. Ed. Raphaël Bouvier and Martin Schwander. Exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler. Basel, 2015, p. 196, figs. 9 (installation shot, Basel 1949–50), 15 (color reproduction of book cover).
Peter Zegers inGauguin Paintings, Sculpture, and Graphic Works at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Genevieve Westerby. Chicago, 2016, para. 6, under no. 49, fig. 49.21 (color) [https://publications.artic.edu/gauguin/reader/gauguinart/section/139805], relates it to the charcoal drawing “Tahitian Faces (Frontal View and Profiles)” (ca. 1899, The Met, 1996.418).
Norma Broude inGauguin's Challenge: New Perspectives After Postmodernism. Ed. Norma Broude. New York, 2018, pp. 1, 69–70, 89, 94 n. 2, fig. 3.7.
Elizabeth C. Childs inGauguin's Challenge: New Perspectives After Postmodernism. Ed. Norma Broude. New York, 2018, p. 236, compares The Met's picture to Paula Modersohn-Becker's "Self-Portrait with an Amber Necklace II" (1906, Kunstmuseum Basel); notes the influence of Gauguin's work on Modersohn-Becker and that she would have seen the painting in Paris 1906.
Belinda Thomson. "Review of June Hargrove, 'Gauguin'." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 19 (Spring 2020) [https://doi.org/10.29411/ncaw.2020.19.1.11].
Alexandre D'Andoque in "Gustave Fayet's Impressionist Collection." Collecting Impressionism: A Reappraisal of the Role of Collectors in the History of the Movement. Ed. Ségolène Le Men and Félicie Faizand de Maupeou. Milan, 2022, pp. 105–6, 115 n. 41, as "Crimson-Flowered Breasts (Les Seins aux fleurs rouges)".
Norma Broude inPaul Gauguin: The Other and I. Ed. Adriano Pedrosa et al. Exh. cat., Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. São Paulo, 2023, p. 74, fig. 43 (color).
Caroline Vercoe inPaul Gauguin: The Other and I. Ed. Adriano Pedrosa et al. Exh. cat., Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. São Paulo, 2023, p. 123, fig. 70 (color).
Paul Gauguin: The Other and I. Ed. Adriano Pedrosa et al. Exh. cat., Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. São Paulo, 2023, p. 261, colorpl. 129.
Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands)
1899
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