Landscape with three figures 1901

Paul Gauguin made this landscape painting with oils, but he wasn't trying to be photorealistic. I bet he was thinking about something else. The dominant colors are rusty oranges and greens, with dabs of blues and yellows. The composition is so intriguing. I like the shapes of the houses, and how everything feels crammed together. The ground plane almost seems to tilt up. I imagine Gauguin wanting to capture what the land feels like rather than what it looks like. The color palette is like someone turned up the saturation too high; it’s got that kind of artificial feeling. Look at the brushstrokes—they seem slapped on. Maybe he was trying to capture the wildness and vibrancy he was encountering, but maybe he was also wrestling with his feelings about being there. I think he probably felt like a fish out of water! I wonder if he felt stuck between worlds.