Accession Number
1964/2.45

Title
Manao Tupapau

Artist(s)
Paul Gauguin

Object Creation Date
1894

Medium & Support
woodcut on paper

Dimensions
9 1/8 in. x 15 in. ( 23.1 cm x 38.1 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Florence L. Stol

Label copy
In 1893 and 1894 Gauguin made three woodcuts on the same theme, all of which relate to the painting "Manao Tupapau (Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo), executed upon his return to Paris from his first Tahitian sojourn. All reflect his search for a mode of life integrated with the spiritual. The figure of his island mistress is shown in curled up, evoking both the fetal position and a primeval Tahitian burial posture. Gauguin understood the title to mean both "she thinks of the spirit" or "the spirit thinks of her." The sleeping form evokes the nighttime link to the dead, the past, and the unconscious.

Physical Description
Full-length nude figure in fetal position viewed from behind

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
Figures
Portraits
bust-length
figures (representations)
history
man
nudes
nudes (representations)
self-portrait