Seated Tahitian Woman (related to the painting Te faaturuma [Reverie])
1891/93
![Seated Tahitian Woman (related to the painting Te faaturuma [Reverie]) by Paul Gauguin](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/aic/thumb/seated-tahitian-woman-related-to-the-painting-te-aic-188750.webp)
Medium
Charcoal on cream wove paper (discolored to tan)
Dimensions
55.5 × 48 cm (21 7/8 × 18 15/16 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
188750
Art Historical Context
In the lush, exotic world of Paul Gauguin's imagination, *Seated Tahitian Woman captures the artist's fascination with Polynesian life during his transformative stay in Tahiti from 1891 onward. Created between 1891 and 1893, this charcoal drawing cream wove paper—now gently discolored to tan—es as a poignant study related to his painting *Te faaturuma [Reverie]*, evoking a woman's quiet introspection amid island reverie. Gauguin, a Post-Impressionist pioneer, rejected European conventions for bold, simplified forms inspired by non-Western cultures, blending Symbolism with a romanticized primit...
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 ...