Tahitian woman in the work of Paul Gauguin takes almost the first place. A mysterious, mysterious heroine, distinguished by an unusual, even wild beauty – is the image around which many paintings of the artist are built.
Having settled in Tahiti, Gauguin married a local young maiden, a thirteen-year-old Tehure. It’s amazing, but this very young girl became the support of a mature artist – the main assistant, a muse and a model for his best works. In addition, Tehura knew local sacred traditions very well and told them to Gauguin, giving him a new platform for imagination and creativity.
The painting “Ancestors of Tehamana” is sometimes called “The ancestors of Tehura” or “Tehama has many ancestors”. The work combines seemingly incompatible things – native Tahitian attributes and symbols with European notes.
His wife was depicted in a European dress, but Tehura holds a traditional palm fan in her hands, and flowers are woven into her hair-the main adornments for Tahitian hair.
The background for the portrait of Tehura are unusual friezes – mysterious bizarre symbols and figures of two idols, Taaroa and Hina, which are considered to be the main gods of the Tahitians, the ancestors of the islanders.
How captivating and unusual is the beauty of the portrayed wife of Gauguin – a large face, a large nose, wide outlined eyebrows, a good figure! Today it is difficult to understand what threads connected Europeans Gauguin with a modest girl-islander, however, it can definitely be said that she played an important role in the work of the unrecognized master.
One way or another, in 1893 Gauguin returned to Paris and wrote this picture from memory, yearning for the abandoned young pregnant wife. After the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, which the loving Gauguin picked up on the island, and failures on the love front, he will return to Tahiti with the hope of quiet family happiness. But for these two years Tehura will already marry a local man, and Gauguin’s son, Emil, will grow up in the family of the islanders. Subsequent Gauguin’s enthusiasm for heart will not leave such a trace either in the work or in the soul of the artist.
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