Day of the Gods (Mahana No Atua), 1894
Oil on canvas
68.3 x 91.5 cm
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.198
Chicago Institute of Art
Set in a Tahitian landscape by the sea, the composition is divided into three horizontal bands. At the top, islanders perform a ritual near a towering sculpture. Like many figures in Gauguin’s Tahitian images, the monumental sculpture was derived not from local religion but from photographs of carved reliefs adorning the Buddhist temple complex at Borobudur (Java). In the middle band, three symmetrically arranged figures are placed against a field of pink earth in poses that may signify birth, life, and death. The woman in the center, formally linked to the sculpture at the top, is similar in appearance to other depictions of Tahitian females that Gauguin used to suggest the Christian figure of Eve in paradise. The lower portion of the composition evokes the brilliant, contrasting hues reflected in the water. Gauguin’s Post-Impressionist style, defined by a decreasing tendency to depict real objects and the expressive use of flat, curving shapes of brilliant color, influenced many abstract painters of the early 20th century. |