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Two nude women with brown skin and long black hair stand with their backs to us at a riverbank in this stylized horizontal painting. The body of the woman to our left is angled to our left with her hands raised, presumably about to plunge into the teal-colored water. The woman to our right unwraps a cloth patterned with bright yellow flowers on a deep purple background from her waist. Between the women and farther away, a bare-chested man, also with brown skin, wears a tomato-red garment across his hips as he stands hip-deep in the water holding a long spear. The top of his head is cropped by the top edge of the painting. Along the left edge of the canvas, a gnarled tree is painted as a flat field of dark, charcoal gray, and it rises off the side and top of the composition. An area of the same color, perhaps a thick root or the trunk growing nearly horizontally, spans the width of the painting, separating the women from us. The area around the trunk to our left and right is painted with fields of evergreen and cool mint. Closer to us, along the front of the root, a field of rosy pink swirls with grape purple to suggest sand. This area is dotted with harvest-yellow and pumpkin-orange vines and stylized flowers. A bunch of vivid orange flowers with pine and spring-green leaves sits on the root near the trunk, to our left. Most of the painting, especially the landscape, is painted with areas of mostly flat color. In the bottom left corner, the artist has written the title of the painting in darkred paint: “Fatata te Miki.” In the lower right corner, he signed and dated the work with periwinkle blue: “P. Gauguin 92.”

Fatata te Miti (By the Sea), 1892

Paul Gauguin

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 83

Across the winding trunk of a flowering tropical tree, we see two Tahitian women. They undress for a swim in the sea. Gauguin uses lush colors and a striking composition to convey the uninhibited joy of plunging naked into the waves.

The materialism and secularism of modern French culture disgusted Gauguin. Inspired by literature, the artist searched for a fantastical place where spiritually healthy people lived in harmony with nature. Believing that he had found that in Tahiti, he set about painting his idealized experience. Works like this one are more about the artist’s own thoughts and feelings than the real people surrounding him.

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 67.9 x 91.5 cm (26 3/4 x 36 in.)

framed: 92.4 x 114.9 x 10.1 cm (36 3/8 x 45 1/4 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.149

Artists / Makers

Paul Gauguin (painter) French, 1848 - 1903

Image Use

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Detail Information

Inscription

lower left: Fatata te Miti; lower right: P Gauguin 92

Provenance

(Gauguin sale, Paris, 18 February 1895, no. 27, bought in); Paul Gauguin; possibly sold 1895 to (Ambroise Vollard [1867-1939], Paris). William Molard, 1897. George Daniel de Monfreid [1856-1929]; sold 7 June 1898 to Ernest Rouart [1874-1942], Paris.[1] (Galerie L. Dru, Paris); sold 1928 to Louis L. Horch [d. 1979], New York;[2] sold 11 June 1928 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

[1] Assuming this is the painting referred to in the chronology published in Gauguin: Tahiti, Exh. cat., Galerie nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2004: 347.

The painting was lent by Ernest Rouart to the 1906 Salon d'Automne. Ernest was the son of collector Henri Rouart and inherited with his siblings his father's collection. The collection was dispersed at auctions in Paris in 1912 and 1913, none of which included this Gauguin. Neither was it included in an anonymous sale of some of Ernest Rouart's collection held 22-23 March 1918 in Paris.

[2] Horch was the financial backer of the first Roerich Museum on Riverside Drive, New York City, that existed between 1924-1938. Chester Dale's papers, copy in NGA curatorial files, record the Roerich Museum as his source for the Gauguin, but this is crossed out and Horch written in.

Associated Names

Dale, Chester
Galerie L. Dru
Horch, Louis
Monfreid, George Daniel de
Rouart, Ernest
Sale, Paris
Vollard, Ambroise

Exhibition History

1893: Exposition d'Oeuvres récentes de Paul Gauguin, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1893, no. 24

1897: La Libre Esthétique, Brussels, 1987, no.277.

1906: Salon d'Automne, Grand Palais, Paris, 1906, no. 203

1928: Loan Exhibition of Modern French Art from the Chester Dale Collection for the Benefit of the French Hospital of New York, Wildenstein Galleries, 1928, no. 14

1932: Exhibition of Paintings by Cezanne, Gauguin and Redon, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paris, 1932, no. 9

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1988: The Art of Paul Gauguin, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Art Institute of Chicago; Grand Palais, Paris, 1988-1989, no. 152, repro. [shown in Washington only]

2010: From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro. (through February 2011 only).

2010: Gauguin: Maker of Myth, Tate, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011, no. 113, repro. (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1925: Rotonchamp, Jean. Paul Gauguin 1848-1903. Paris, 1925: 137.

1928: "New York Collector Buys Gauguin Canvas." Chicago New Post (20 July 1928).

1928: "Selections from the Chester Dale Collection." Art News 27, no. 3 (20 October 1928): 1+, repro.

1929: Dale, Maud. Before Manet to Modigliani from the Chester Dale Collection. New York, 1929: no. 64, repro.

1936: Bulliet, C. J. The Significant Moderns and Their Pictures. New York, 1936: repro. no. 75.

1939: Slocombe, George. Rebels of Art, Manet to Matisse. New York, 1939: pl. 22.

1942: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 75, repro.

1944: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 75, repro.

1950: Lewandowski, Herbert. Paul Gauguin, oder Die Flucht vor der Zivilisation. Bern, 1950: 349.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 168, color repro.

1953: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 83, repro.

1956: Wildenstein, Georges, et. al. "Oeuvres appartenant au cycle 'D'ou venons-nou? Qui sommes-nous? Ou allons-nous?'," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th series, vol. 47 (January-April 1956): 141, fig. 7.

1956: Wildenstein, Georges, et. al. "Traduction et interprétation des titres en langue Tahitienne inscrits sur les oeuvres Océaniennes de Paul Gauguin," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th series, vol. 47 (January-April 1956): 141, fig. 7.

1956: Wildenstein, Georges. "L'Idéologie et l'Esthétique dans deux tableaux-clés de Gauguin." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6e périod, 47 (January-April 1956): 141.

1957: Goldwater, Robert. Paul Gauguin. New York, 1957: 116, repro.

1959: Evans, Grose. French Painting of the 19th Century in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Two in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 38, color repro.

1960: Newton, Eric. The Arts of Man. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1960: 232-234, repro.

1960: The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 19.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 276, repro., as Fatata te Miti.

1964: Wildenstein, Georges. Gauguin. 2 vols. Paris, 1964: no. 463.

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 124, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 55.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:472, color repro.

1967: Danielsson, Bengt. "Gauguin's Tahitian Titles." The Burlington Magazine 109, no. 769 (April 1967): 230.

1968: Cachin, Françoise. Gauguin. Paris, 1968: 245, repro.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 93-94, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 48, repro.

1971: Clay, Jean, ed. L'impressionnisme. Paris, 1971: 170, repro.

1972: Sugana, Gabriele Mandel. Tout l'ouevre peint de Gauguin. Milan, 1972: no. 291, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 146, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 526, repro. 527.

1977: Field, Richard S. Paul Gauguin: The Paintings of the First Voyage to Tahiti. New York and London, 1977: 154-157.

1980: Liere, Eldon N. van, "Solutions and Dissolutions: The Bather in Nineteenth-Century French Painting," Arts Magazine 54, no 9 (May 1980): 112, repro.

1981: Sugana, Gabriele Mandel. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gauguin. Paris, 1981: no. 291, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 522, no. 784, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 168, repro.

1988: Bretell, Richard R. The Art of Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Washington, D.C., 1988: 276-277, no. 152, repro.

1992: Parsons, Thomas, and Iain Gale. Post-Impressionism: The Rise of Modern Art. London, 1992: 188, repro.

1992: Vance, Peggy. Gauguin. London, 1992: 114, repro.

1993: Kapos, Martha, ed. The Post-Impressionists: A Retrospective. New York, 1993: pl. 65.

1993: Thomson, Belinda, ed. Gauguin by Himself. New York, 1993: no. 187, repro.

1995: Halpine, Susana M. "An Investigation of Artists' Materials Using Amino Acid Analysis: Introduction of the One-Hour Extraction Method." Studies in the History of Art 51 (1995): 53-55, repro. no. 15.

1998: Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castira, La peinture moderne des impressionnistes aux avant-gardes. Paris, 1998: 167-168, repro.

2004: Shackelford, George T.M., and Claire Frèches-Thory. Gauguin: Tahiti. Exh. cat. Galerie nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 2004: 347.

2013: Gamboni, Dario. Paul Gauguin au “centre mystérieux de la pensée". Dijon, 2013: 316, repro. 318.

2014: Figura, Starr. “Gauguin’s Metamorphoses: Repetition, Transformation, and the Catalyst of Printmaking.” In Gauguin: Metamorphoses. Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art. New York, 2014: 24, repro.

2015: Jakobi, Marianne. Gauguin, Signac: la genèse du titre contemporain. Paris, 2015: repro. 151, color repro. pl. 22.