Head of a Tahitian Woman (recto), Sketches of Anatomical Details (verso)
1891/93
Medium
Pen and brown ink (originally purple) (recto); graphite (verso); on cream wove paper, discolored to tan (removed from a sketchbook)
Dimensions
14 × 8.8 cm (5 9/16 × 3 1/2 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
113942
Art Historical Context
In 1891, Paul Gauguin embarked on transformative first voyage to Tahiti, seeking inspiration from Polynesian culture and a respite from Western civilization. This intimate drawing, created between 1891 and 189, captures the *Head of a Tahitian Woman* on the recto, embodying his Post-Impressionist with exotic beauty, simplified, and emotional expressiveness Gauguin's bold, fluid lines in pen and brown ink—originally a vibrant purple, now fadedhighlight the woman's serene features, evoking the idealized nobility he attributed to Tahitian people amid his critique of colonialism. The verso reveal...
About the Artist
Paul Gauguin · 1848–1903
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose bold experiments with color, form, and subject matter made him one of the most influential figures in the transition from 19th-century art to modernism. His rejection of European civilization for the perceived authenticity of 'primitive' cultures established an archetype of artistic exile that continues to resonate. Gauguin's ...