Paul Gauguin's Spirit Of The Dead Watching - Circa 1892

Paul Gauguin's Spirit of the Dead Watching, circa 1892.

Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an oil on burlap canvas painting by... more

by David Hinds

Title

Paul Gauguin's Spirit Of The Dead Watching - Circa 1892

Artist

David Hinds

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

Paul Gauguin's Spirit of the Dead Watching, circa 1892.

Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.

The subject of the painting is Gauguin's 13-year-old native "wife" Teha'amana (called Tehura in his letters), who one night, according to Gauguin, was lying in fear when he arrived home late: "immobile, naked, lying face downward flat on the bed with the eyes inordinately large with fear. Might she not with my frightened face take me for one of the demons and specters, one of the Tupapaus, with which the legends of her race people sleepless nights?." Gaugin was suffering from advanced venereal disease when he came to Tahiti, and he passed it onto Teha'aman, who was his first sexual partner on the island.

Uploaded

January 14th, 2022