GAUGUIN, Paul
(b. 1848, Paris, d. 1903, Atuona, Hiva Oa, French Polynesia)

Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (detail)

1897
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, Gauguin's most ambitious painting in terms of size, number of figures, and probable overlay of meanings, there are Tahitian natives in unusual and probably contrived meditative poses and a foreboding primitive idol. In a way yet to be explained, the painting has to do with human destiny.




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