Paul Gauguin: Merahi metua no Tehamana

What I found most interesting about this painting was the history behind it. Teha'amana Paul Gaugin's wife during his first visit to Tahiti in 1891. This painting was special because even though the artist was trying to escape the European lifestyle, it was to his dismay when he arrived in Tahiti and found that it was not the "primitive," culture he was expecting. In this painting this is demonstrated by him highlighting the dress she is wearing which is usually imposed on native women by European missionaries. To the artist this was a shock that Tahiti was not the the place he thought it was.