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Eve

1890
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
The original femme fatale of the Judeo-Christian tradition, Eve was a source of fascination for artists of Gauguin’s generation. Produced the year prior to his first voyage to Tahiti, this lush ceramic nude is an entirely make-believe idol, embodying the exotic fantasy of eternal youth and beauty that the artist dreamed of encountering in such an earthly paradise. Standing atop a cloissoné-style incised base depicting tropical floral imagery, Eve appears to metamorphose into—or emerge from—the blue- and ivory-hued foliage of the hollow tree trunk behind her. Streaks of golden glaze across her hair, groin, and torso suggest the sexual potency of Eve, the progenitor of life and death, humanity and sin.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Eve
  • Artist: Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands)
  • Date: 1890
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: Glazed ceramic
  • Dimensions: 23 7/8 × 11 × 10 3/4 in., 25 lb. (60.6 × 27.9 × 27.3 cm, 11.3 kg)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund (1970.30.1)
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art