Spirit of the Dead Watching

This painting was inspired by Gauguin’s Tahitian wife, Tehura, who at the time was 14 years old. One night, he came home and found her lying on her stomach, eyes wide open with fear, immobile, and naked on their bed. As she looked at him, it was as if she was looking directly at a ghost. Gauguin himself described the symbolism of the painting, indicating that the bright colors were phosphorescent lights in the dark, as the Tahitian people feared that bright lights in the dark were ghosts. In his description of his wife’s fear that night, he states that she have mistaken him for a ghost, but historians have since suggested that her fear was due to his aggressive behavior towards her. This painting was also included in one of Gauguin’s self-portraits, in which it appears in the background, indicating its importance to him.