The morning 1892

Paul Gauguin made this oil on canvas, titled "The Morning", during one of his trips to Tahiti, in the 1890s. Gauguin was a white, male, European artist, who sought to escape what he saw as the constraints of Western society. In his Tahitian paintings, we see Gauguin's vision of an unspoiled paradise, where indigenous women are closely connected to the land. The women pictured are not individualized, but rather, they fit into Gauguin's fantasy about Polynesian life. He depicts an image of women drawing water from a stream. Their quiet labor fills the painting with stillness, serenity, and a sense of timelessness. Gauguin's work has been criticized for its idealization and romanticization of non-Western cultures, and his works raise questions about cultural appropriation. Yet in his own words, Gauguin sought to use the "simple and very mysterious" forms of Tahitian art to "plunge into nature" and explore the relationship between humanity and the natural world. This is a very personal work that expresses Gauguin's feelings.