The Large Tree
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
unframed: 74 × 92.8 cm · framed: 92.4 × 112.7 × 6.4 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Barbara Ginn Griesinger
Accession Number
1975.263
Tags
male
About this artwork
Disgusted with the materialism of European society, Gauguin abandoned his family and career as a stockbroker and departed for Tahiti in 1891. This canvas is among the first paintings he completed on the island. Its rich colors and stylized figures were intended to be both symbolic and mysterious, evoking private thoughts and emotions. “I obtain symphonies,” he wrote, “harmonies that represent nothing real in the absolute sense of the word.”