Polynesian Woman with Children
1901
Medium
Oil on linen canvas
Dimensions
97 × 74 cm (38 3/16 × 29 1/8 in.); Framed: 111.2 × 88.3 × 5.8 cm (43 3/4 × 34 3/4 × 2 1/4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
34461
Art Historical Context
**Polynesian Woman with Children painted by Paul Gauguin in 1901, captures the artist's deep immersion in Polynesian life during his final years in the South Pacific. Having fled the industrialization of Europe, Gauguin settled in the Marquesas Islands where he created this poignant oil on linen canvas (97 × 74 cm) as one of his last major works before his death in 1903. The reflects his fascination with indigenous culture, portraying a serene Polynesian woman cradling her children in a harmonious, almost mythical tableau that idealizes maternal bonds and tropical paradise. Gauguin's Post-Imp...
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 ...