Features

Introduction 

Paul Gauguin is a French Post-Impressionist artist who was unappreciated until after his death. Gauguin now is recognized for his experimental and innovative presentation of formal elements and primitive style in both his 3D and 2D artworks in the later stage of his life in Polynesia which were distinct from his earlier Impressionist paintings and the main- stream art styles of the bourgeois French society. I found great admiration for Gauguin as an artist for his exquisite skills applied in artistic creation and as a person because of his willingness for incessant adventure and innovation through his entire life. 

When visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I was impressed by Gauguin’s works, which were mostly created during Gauguin’s stay in the middle Pacific with few works from earlier art practices in France. These works, mostly depicting nature and nude female figures, are the most prominent and eye-catching series in the entire showroom as they stand in stark contrast to the rest relatively delicate paintings depicting elegant and well- dressed ladies. When I looked closely at the paintings done in Tahiti, I can feel the peace and harmony between the female figures and the surrounding nature, the strong enthusiasm and passion about life, and the simplicity of sexuality and human nature. These feelings merge together and come out as a romantic visual enjoyment. 

What is Gauguin’s intention of such a change in styles? What theme is Gauguin trying to explore in these primitive-styled paintings? What is Gauguin trying to convey about the esoteric and profound themes of sexuality and humanity through these paintings of nude native women? By focusing on Gauguin’s illustration of Tahitian female figures, this essay aims to reconcile critical reception with artistic intention, questioning “How Paul Gauguin has reached his re-figuration of gender and sexuality though his paintings of female figures in Tahiti?” this essay states that Gauguin has accomplished the romantic re-figuration of gender and sexuality with the exploration in the beauty of androgyny and primitivism, as well as the emphasis on the harmony created by the female figure and the surroundings in the paintings. Critiques of Gauguin and his paintings will be shown and evaluated to offer multiple perspectives to have a comprehensive understanding of the master’s works. Gauguin’s attitude towards the unique aesthetics of androgyny and primitivism will be emphasized and demonstrated in detail with analysis of specific paintings. To better support the thesis, both detailed primary analysis of the paintings and secondary critical views from authoritative critics will be utilized throughout the essay. 

Androgynous Humanity 

Gauguin holds a fundamental place in the development of French modernism with his innovation in the style and subjects of his artistic creations and romantic biography. Through the depiction of female figures in his paintings done in Tahiti, Gauguin juxtaposed opposite conceptions of feminine-masculine and civilized-primitive. As commented by Heather Waldroup, scholar who dedicates to the research of Gauguin’s contemporary impacts, the viewers of his paintings are taught to embrace the potential for an ambivalent response to art: that unraveling the distinctions between the two can make for a compelling series of conversations.1 

Besides the appreciation to Gauguin’s Tahitian work by many later generations in contemporary and modern art, there has been often-repeated critique of Gauguin’s Tahitian artworks with female figures, which asserts that Gauguin has an exploitive relationship to Tahiti and its people, especially the women. According to the critics mainly made by feminists, Gauguin had ingrained categorizations of the European, and exploited the Tahitian women with his blinkered sense of entitlement.2

Certain representative critique questions Gauguin’s writings and his representation of Polynesian women. For instance, in the writings of Abigail Solomon-Godeau, one of the first sustained critiques emerged, Gauguin was claimed coming off as not just a colonist enjoying white privilege in the form of sexual tourism, but also as an avant-garde artist whose creation depended heavily on the exploitation of indigenous female Tahitians as models and subjects.3 Though the master’s life and great works have always been controversial, this essay holds the  

standpoint that although there are a large number of female images in Gauguin's works, the evaluation of his works only at the level of appreciating the beauty of women's bodies will be quite one-sided, not to mention the above accusation on Gauguin’s blasphemy against women's bodies. Gauguin’s works have brought his focus of creation to a broader and deeper understanding towards sexuality and gender. This understanding has gone far beyond the simple study of the female body on a superficial visual level, exploring the topic which has been deeper into the spiritual beauty of the whole humanity behind the physical gender. 

Being influenced by the writing of Gauguin’s maternal grandmother, feminist writer Flora Tristan, who claims androgyny as a psychological unity of masculine and feminine aspects, Gauguin continued to explore on the topic in his paintings of female figures in Tahiti.4 The earlier Romantic utopian philosophy developed an ideal of an androgynous humanity——a harmonious unity that transcends all differences. Gauguin frequently used this earlier idea of androgyny to create an image of a transcending, hybrid identity in his paintings of female figures in Tahiti. The binary gender classification seems to be reversed and aborted in front of Gauguin's puissant narration and illustration of a new definition of humanity. According to Gauguin’s letter to an adolescent Madeleine Bernard in 1888, “Androgyne, without sex....... The virtues of a woman are exactly the same as the virtues of a man”5, Gauguin conceives of androgyny as his utopian eraser of distinctions of gender. "I must confess that I too am a woman and that I am always prepared to applaud a woman who is more daring than I, and is equal to a man in fighting for freedom of behavior."6, quotes of Gauguin in his journal Le Sourire which published in 1899, make a further prove of Gauguin’s Avant-guard standpoint of the versatility of identity and humanity. It is never comprehensive enough to summarize a person’s quality and determine a person’s soul and mind by the physical and inflexible traits reflected by the physical gender. In the meanwhile, Stephen F. Eisenman, a renowned American art historian who has an in-depth study of Paul Gauguin, believes that Gauguin’s exploration in the theme of homosexuality and androgynous humanity was also influenced by his own experience and actual knowledge of sexual underground of Paris. The subculture of male homosexuals and cross-dressers were intersected by the Symbolists of the time in that underground community.7 

The native female bodies in Gauguin’s paintings share common characteristics of robust figures, healthy brown skin, and ambiguous sexual features. A weakened femininity and a momentary weariness of the role of female who must always be soft are conveyed through Gauguin’s unique illustration of female bodies. 

Spirit of the Dead Watching is representative of Gauguin’s manifestation of the androgynous beauty as Gauguin mentioned in his notebook for his eldest daughter Aline in 1893 that it is “a study of Polynesian nude”. In the painting, Gauguin’s child-bride, Tehura, was depicted in a posture of lying nude on the bed, with Polynesian flowers floating in the background and a foreboding devil Tupapau sitting at the footboard of the bed. A story constructed on a continuous switching between feminine and masculine identities was unfolded through the figure of young Tehura. 

The physical visual presentation of Spirit of the Dead Watching was significantly inspired by impressionist Édouard Manet's

Olympia created in 1863 as Gauguin admired and appreciated the painting for its female figure La Belle Olympia, who caused huge scandal yet still gracefully, decently and confidently ensconced her feminine prettiness by directly showing her body with a direct calm stare at the viewers and no hiding or concealing.8 

Delicate illustration of details, emphasis on the feminine beauty of the female figure. These include the orchid in her hair, her bracelet, pearl earrings and the oriental shawl on which she lies, symbols of wealth and sensuality. The black ribbon around her neck, in stark contrast with her pale flesh, and her cast-off slipper underline the voluptuous atmosphere. 

Though the depiction of a prostitute related female figure was a huge breakthrough in the depiction and portrait forms at that time, the female figure that Manet painted was still in a pose of a typical Salon nude of Europe art history. In other words, Manet remained in the state of materialization do women and concentrated on the superficial and ostensive beauty of women, which can be considered as an advocate of heterosexuality. In contrast, Gauguin referred to the subjects and composition of Olympia while made a higher-leveled breakthrough upon it in the creation of Spirit of the Dead Watching as praised by Stephen F. Eisenman that “Gauguin invokes with his painting a theme and subject remote from the canonized heterosexuality and anodyne classicism that is central to the Salon nude.”9 In Gauguin’s words, the painting was made “very simple, the motive being savage, childlike” 10. Tehura was naked and motionless, posing on her stomach and lying on the verge of the bed with wide eye with fear in it. According to Gauguin’s letter to his wife Mette on 8 December 189211, Tehura’s posture in the painting was indecent but was painted on purpose by Gauguin as he said the movement was interesting to him with naiveté and innocence in the nature of the young female. Thus, the extreme youth and a heuristic tracing-back of the character of Tehura, the representative of general human being, with is shown through the painting. The adolescence is like the uncut and undecorated jade, with infinite possibilities of development and myths waiting to be explored. Instead of directly facing the viewers and exposing all the typical sexual features and emphasis on the femininity like the way of depiction in Olympia, Gauguin made Tehura belly down on the bed and concealed her sex, creating a harmonious and ideal androgyny in Tehura’s identity. An emphasis on self was reached and the conception of the painting was successfully enhanced onto a spiritual level rather than showing the visualization of the beauty of maternal and feminine body in a superficial level only. The permanence and eternal stability of the self was emphasized when the focus of the painting shifts from a simple visual level of body image to the profounder and deeper meaning behind the image.12 The androgynous characteristics of female figures in Gauguin’s paintings like Tehura offering hybridity and ambivalence in the definition of identity and nature of sexuality, smashing the materialization of women represented in the mainstream paintings in Gauguin’s time. The merging of sexes was no longer a dream but a reality to Paul Gauguin compared to his utopian socialist grandmother. 

The Savage and Primitivism 

The accomplishment of Gauguin’s maternal grandmother as a pioneer female feminist as explained in the earlier part of the essay and Gauguin’s early childhood spent in Peru due to his father’s self-exile are deeply imprinted in Gauguin’s memories and thoughts.13 Gauguin inherited the revolutionary bloodline and self-exile spirit of his parents' family somehow formed Gauguin’s unique mindset and spiritual pursuit at the time. In Gauguin’s mind, the civilized Europe was “filthy” while the primitive Tahiti was like an “unspoiled heaven”.14 "It was Europe, the Europe which I had thought to shake off — and that under the aggravating circumstances of colonial snobbism, and the imitation, grotesque even to the point of caricature, of our customs, fashions, vices, and absurdities of civilization." 15 As shown by the quotes in Noa Noa, a journal written by Gauguin himself marking down his thoughts of life experiences and states of the society at that time in Tahiti, Gauguin’s boredom towards the mechanical and stiff aesthetics and mainstream belief in the Europe society and his intention for breakthrough and pursuit of a more innovative attitude of aesthetic are obvious.

Gauguin not only transcended and challenged the colonial definition of binary gender classification, but also the boundary of civilization set up by the colonialism and capitalism and the “obsolete” savage world (in colonial discourse). The exploration on sexuality and gender in a primitive and savage society instead of an advanced and civilized society can be regarded as Gauguin’s another breakthrough and innovative viewpoints on the thesis, hence is considered as another facet of the master’s re-configuration of gender and sexuality. "In order to produce something new, you have to return to the original source, to the childhood of mankind." 16, Gauguin said in his interview in 1895. Gauguin reveled in the utopia constructed by himself in his paintings, in which he probed the restrictions of such civilized- savage identities, and used the idealization of indigenous people as a rhetorical device to criticize the European society.17 Primitivism as a utopian idea distinctive for its reverse teleology was frequently applied by Gauguin as the essence and core of his artistic creations, with the emphasis of a notional "state of nature" in which ancestors of the human society existed (chronological primitivism) and a supposed natural condition of people that lived beyond "civilization" ( cultural primitivism).18 Paintings with female figures as subject of illustration offers clues to Gauguin’s notion of Primitivism and retrospect of the origin of humanity as he naturalized the women figures as element of a rich and varied nature and absorbed the discourses of originality and evolution. 

In Day of the God, for instance, the originality of life and evolutionary narration are evident of taking shape through the depiction of female figures, with evolution proceeding form foreground to background. In the front, abstract shapes of unformed bodies are swirling in the water, anticipating the life of fully-formed bodies lying on land. The originality and essence of life——birth, life and death——is discussed through the depiction of three young women at the pool edge. The figure on the left touching the water surface merely with the tip of toes symbolizes the state of birth. The figure on the right turning away from the pool completely represents the state of death. The central figure sitting at the edge and putting both feet in the water represents life. The woman touches her hair and looks out coquettishly at the viewer, being actively seductive and showing a desire and ambition in human nature.19 Behind these are the bipedal and costumed female figures dancing and proceeding certain religious rites, showing a process of evolution in both biological and cultural forms. 

Day of the God was painted in 1894, during Gauguin’s stay in France between his stays in the South Pacific, so it is an imaginary scene rather than a realistic depiction.20 The fictional narration leads the focus of the painting to a conceptual and spiritual level with underline of primitive and indigenous cultures, better serves for the defiance of civilization. The Polynesian goddess Hina in the back center of the painting is an essential religious and cultural element that is frequently illustrated in Gauguin’s whole oeuvre. From the origin of Tahitian myth, the story between the goddess Hina, Maui and Tuna is legendary and romantic, underlining the charm and mightiness of female. The Tahitian myth centered on the valorous seeking for true love of Hina, which was analogical to Gauguin’s personal experience of abandoning the conventional life while seeking for a brand-new life and romance in Tahiti, and the grapple between two powerful men Maui and Tuna for the contention of Hina.21 Hence, the figure of goddess Hina is often related to a powerful female force with dominion over a specific entity, the general life in this primitive utopia in this case. 

The costumed women in the background dancing Upa Upa, a traditional and ancient Tahitian ritual dancing form, shows Gauguin’s stand for primitive and indigenous culture as well. With reference to Upa Upa (The Fire Dance) done in 1891, performers usually form groups of pairs of a male and a female, dancing more or less in certain sexually oriented movements, which showcases the pursuit of pure sexuality as a nature in the originality of humanity. The significance of Upa Upa in Gauguin’s painting is due to the forbid of the dance since 1819 in the famous Pōmare code. The colonial missionaries considered the movements in the dance as indecent and obscene, which is in the opposite of what the progression of civilization ought to be.22 Though many restrictions were relaxed later in 1842, Upa Upa was remained on the blacklist. However, it was proceeded and performed secretly among the local people constantly, which can be regarded as a secret rebellion of local Tahitian on guard of a precious treasure originated from the powerful ancient culture towards the imprisonment brought by the civilized groups of people. Thus, Gauguin’s depiction of the female figures performing the forbidden dance with imagination during his stay in France, an environment inundated with advanced civilization in aspects of complex hierarchies and prosperity orthodox protocols, strongly voiced his blatant opposition to civilization and colonialism, and the insistence of perdurability of the precious primitive and savage culture. Hence, more values of female figures get to be explored and uncovered as the carriers of primitivism and nature and communicators of present to the origin of human society. 

The scenes of nature are combining and merging with the scenes of female figures, regarded as Gauguin’s another unique way to pursuit the original and primitive sexuality. Upa Upa (The Fire Dance) shows Gauguin’s such intention by showing the harmonious yet vibrant atmosphere constructed by the Tahitian females and the surrounding nature. The composition of the painting is well-designed as a powerful phallic tree courses diagonally through the whole picture and a red field on the left of the painting corresponds to a leaping fire. Such composition and depiction of nature work with the theme of the painting that has been discussed earlier, as the Tahitian’s erotic dance and lovemaking, to explore the intersection of vitalism in nature and the inherent qualities of human beings. Indeed, in Gauguin’s paintings from 1891 and ever after, trees and plants frequently intermix with the scenes of Tahitian eroticism.23 Gauguin’s willingness and eager of exploring the most primitive and original reality of eroticism, which is a significant facet of sexuality deep in the personalities of human beings, are revealed accompanied by the discussion of the internal reality of nature. 

Gauguin’s pursuit of savage and primitivism is revealed through his meticulous and careful arrangement of the female figures, application of figures of Goddess from the original local myths, and depiction and support of the ancient and savage culture performed and presented by the Tahitian females. 

Conclusion 

Exploring and illustrating subject of female figures for the most paintings in the latter half of Paul Gauguin’s life, which was mainly spent in Tahiti, Gauguin accomplished the re- figuration of sexuality by giving more precious values and possibilities of explanation and understanding on female figures. With analysis of Gauguin’s such masterpieces as The Spirit of the Dead Watching and Day of the God, female figures in Gauguin’s paintings break the banal mainstream stereotypes on women identities that materializing women figures in portraits. The beauty of androgyny of the eternally varying state of sexuality was emphasized in Gauguin’s works, through ambiguous and visual presentation of physiological and sexual features of the female figures. Rebellion towards the capitalism and colonialism of civilized parties, and exploration and retrospect of origin of human society were strengthened via the application of feminine elements. In a nutshell, Gauguin has done his re-figuration of sexuality through his paintings of female figures by romantically revealing the continuity and ambivalence in definition of identity in aspects of sexuality, regarding women as vessels for continuous conversation between the future, present and the ancient origin and primitive nature of human society. Gauguin’s spirit and conception should never be behind the times as such conversation is not finished and will never be finished. 

Notes

1. Heather Waldroup, “Re-Processing Gauguin: Material Histories and the Contemporary Pacific”, in Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018, p.251.

2. Elizabeth C. Childs, “Taking Back Teha’amana: Feminist Interventions in Gauguin’s Legacy”, in Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018, p.233. 

3. Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of the Primitivist Modernism”, in The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, eds. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (New York: Harper Collins, 1992), 312-29 

4. Naomi J. Andrews, “Utopian Androgyny: Romantic Socialists Confront Individualism in July Monarchy France”, French Historical Studies 26, No.3 (2003): 442.

5. Irina Stotland, “Paul Gauguin’s Self-Portraits in Polynesia: Androgyny and Ambivalence”, in Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018, p.43. 

6. Stephen F. Eisenman, Gaguin’s Skirt, Thames and Hudson, 1997, p.116. 4 

7. Stephen F. Eisenman, Paul Gauguin, Artist of Myth and Dream, Skira Editore, 2007, p.27-28. 5 

8. Clark, T.J. (1999) The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. Revised edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, p.86. 

9. Stephen F. Eisenman, Paul Gauguin, Artist of Myth and Dream, Skira Editore, 2007, p.28.

10. Paul Gauguin, Letter to Mette, 8 December 1892

11. Jolly, Margaret "Fraying Gauguin's Skirt: Gender, Race, and Liminality in Polynesia". Pacific Studies, 2000, p.23 23 (1–2): 86–103. 

12. Irina Stotland, “Paul Gauguin’s Self-Portraits in Polynesia: Androgyny and Ambivalence”, in Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018, p.54. 

13. Chiang Hsun, Paul Gauguin Rediscovered by Chiang Hsun, Beijing United Publishing Co, Ltd. 2015, p.48.

14. Paul Gauguin, Noa Noa, (1893) Dover Fine Art, 1985, p.2.

15. Ibid. 

16. Eugène Tardieu, “Interview with Paul Gauguin”, in

L'Écho de Paris

, 13 May 1895. P.110

17. Anthony Pagden, “The Savage Critic: Some European Images of the Primitive,” The Yearbook of English Studies, 13 (1983), 32–45.

18. A. O. Lovejoy and George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935. 

19. Martha Lucy, “Evolution and Desire in Gauguin’s Tahitian Eve”, in Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018, p.157-178.

20. Brettell, Richard. Post-Impressionists. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago and New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987, p. 61. 

21. Brettell, Richard. Post-Impressionists. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago and New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987, p. 61.

22. Patrick O'Reilly, La danse à Tahiti, Nouvelles Editions Latines

, 1977, p.1-30. 

23. Barbara Larson, “Gauguin: Vitalist, Hypnotist”, from Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, 2018, p.193. 

Bibliography 

Andrews, Naomi J., “Utopian Androgyny: Romantic Socialists Confront Individualism in July Monarchy France”, French Historical Studies 26, 

Chiang Hsun, Paul Gauguin Rediscovered by Chiang Hsun, Beijing United Publishinhg Co, Ltd. 2015, 

Clark, T.J., The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. 

Brettel, Richard R., Post-Impressionists, Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/H.N. Abrams, 1987. 

Broude, Norma, Gauguin’s Challenge, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018.

Childs, Elizabeth C. “Taking Back Teha’amana: Feminist Interventions in Gauguin’s 

Legacy”, from Gauguin's Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury 

Publishing Inc, 2018.

Eisenman, Stephen F., Gauguin’s Skirt, Thames and Hudson, 1997. 

__________________, Paul Gauguin, Artist of Myth and Dream, Skira Editore, 2007. Gamboni, Dario, The Mysterious Centre of Thought, Reaktion Books, 2014.

Gauguin, Paul, Noa Noa, Dover Fine Art ,1985.

___________, Letter to Mette, 8 December 1892, 

Larson, Barbara, “Gauguin: Vitalist, Hypnotist”, from Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018. 

Lovejoy, A. O. and George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1997. 

Lucy, Martha, “Evolution and Desire in Gauguin's Tahitian Eve”, from Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018. 

16 

Margaret, Jolly. “Fraying Gauguin's Skirt: Gender, Race, and Liminality in Polynesia”. Pacific Studies. 23 (1/2), 2000. 

O'Reilly, Patrick, La danse à Tahiti,

Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1977.

Pagden, Anthony, “The Savage Critic: Some European Images of the Primitive,” The 

Yearbook of English Studies, 13 (1983), 32–45.

Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, “Going Naticve: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of the Primitivist Modernism”, in The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, from Gauguin's Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018. 

Stotland, Irina, Paul Gauguin's Self-Portraits in Polynesia: Androgyny and Ambivalence, Montgomery College LLI. 

Tardieu, Eugène, 'Interview with Paul Gauguin,' in

L'Écho de Paris, 13 May 1895

Waldroup, Heather, “Re-Processing Gauguin: Material Histories and the Contemporary Pacific”, from Gauguin’s Challenge by Norma Broude, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018. 

Qin Shen's critical essay won first prize in the Ninth Annual Humanities and Sciences Writing Contest. Judges Regina Weinreich and Billy Altman had this to say about Qin's prize-winning entry: "The essay presents a comprehensively detailed, well-documented analysis of a provocative and complicated issue. Its thoughtful insights regarding gender and androgyny seem particularly of the moment, re-contextualizing existing theories on Gauguin's female figures. It is, by far, the most ambitious work we have seen in this category to date. Qin is a sophomore majoring in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts. Quin says, "I like playing with colors and different media when creating art". Find works by Qin on Instagram: qinqinzii.