Paul Gauguin
Today we have for you a peaceful scene. Women are resting on a roofed-over veranda and the shaded grass during the heat of the day. One of them is ironing while the others are doing nothing. The unaffected grace and communal ease of Tahitian women impressed Gauguin enormously. The artist worked on this painting for over two years, incorporating numerous changes. The skirt of the woman in the foreground, for example, was originally bright red. There was a dog in the place of the basket at lower right; and the woman seated at the left edge of the porch was previously situated further to the left.
They are Tahitian women, but their clothing is European, loose-fitting mission dresses or colorfully printed fabrics, as if in a colonial fashion magazine; the foreground figure, so inimitably casual in pose, seems particularly reminiscent of such magazines.
Have a calm Saturday!
- Zuzanna