The picture refers to the first stay of Gauguin in Tahiti. A young Tahitian with an ax hung over his head is a real impression that the artist experienced while walking early in the morning along the shore of the ocean. It is described in his diary Noah Noah: “On the shore of a man, almost naked, next to him a tall coconut tree. With his elegant and flexible movement, the man lifts a heavy ax with both hands, leaving his blue glow on top of a silvery sky background, below – his mark on dead tree..
The pose of the Tahitian with an ax in the picture repeats the figure from the ancient frieze of the Parthenon, a photograph of which Gauguin took with him to Tahiti. The Tahitian inscription “Matamoe” in the lower right corner by Googen itself was translated as “Death”. The explanation for such a name for such a magnificent, festive landscape can be found in Gauguin’s books: he wrote that the sight of Tahitians chopping trees aroused in him the feeling of the death of a civilized man and the birth of a “savage”.
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