Notre Dame des Agnes 1884

Paul Gauguin painted Notre Dame des Agnes, an oil on canvas, sometime during his career. Immediately, the composition pulls us in with its structure of receding planes. We move from the foreground's open space into a dense midground of trees, then up towards the church that crowns the scene. Gauguin uses colour and brushstroke to flatten the space rather than create a realistic depth. Notice how the green of the grass in the foreground is almost the same shade as the trees closer to the church. This flattening aligns with Gauguin’s interest in moving away from representational art. The church itself, rendered with soft edges and a muted palette, blends into the landscape. This integration of the architectural with the natural destabilizes the traditional hierarchy. Gauguin suggests a world where the spiritual and earthly are not separate but intertwined. This painting invites us to reconsider our relationship with our surroundings.