Merahi metua no Tehamana (Tehamana Has Many Parents or The Ancestors of Tehamana)

1893

Paul Gauguin
French, 1848-1903

Paul Gauguin traveled to rural France and then abroad in search of inspiration for his art. His quest took the former stockbroker to the French regions of Brittany and Provence, to Panama and Martinique, and finally to Tahiti and the Marquesas in the South Pacific. This stately portrait of Gauguin’s young Tahitian vahine (lover), Tehamana, is perhaps a farewell, since it was painted shortly before the artist left the island, returning to France for two years. Elaborately dressed, her hair decorated with ﬂowers, Tehamana is seated in front of a mysterious painted background reminiscent of a frieze on the wall of an ancient palace or temple. Two ripe mangoes—perhaps an offering or symbol of fertility—rest beside her hip. She points a fan, an emblem of beauty, toward the similarly frontal figure of a goddess, who also wears a red ﬂower in her hair. The fan, ﬂowers, fruit, and even Tehamana’s glance suggest not only the strong, enigmatic bond between these two figures but also the connections between the present and the past, the corporeal and the spiritual, and the living and the dead.

Status: On View, Gallery 247
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Paul Gauguin
Title: Merahi metua no Tehamana (Tehamana Has Many Parents or The Ancestors of Tehamana)
Origin: France
Date: 1893
Medium: Oil on jute canvas
Inscriptions: Signed lower center: P. Gauguin. / 93 Inscribed lower left: MERAHI METUA NO / TEHAMANA
Dimensions: 75 × 53 cm (29 1/2 × 20 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Deering McCormick
Reference Number: 1980.613
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/60812/manifest.json

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Charles Morice, Paul Gauguin (Paris, 1920), p. 148 (ill. opp.).
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Charles Kunstler, Gauguin, peintre maudit, Anciens et Modernes (Paris, 1934), p. 159.
R. G. Wilenski, French Painting (Boston, 1931), 2nd ed. 1936, p. 290.
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Frances S. Connelly, “Primitivism of Philipp Otto Runge,” Art Journal 32, 2 (1993), p. 38, fig. 7.
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Paris, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Exposition Paul Gauguin, November 1893, cat. 33.
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Chicago, Quest Art Galleries, French Nineteenth Century Paintings, May 3–15, 1937, cat. 11 (ill.)
New York, Jacques Seligmann Galleries, February 1937.
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The Art Institute of Chicago, Gauguin, Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture, February 12–March 29, 1959, cat. 51 (ill.); traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 21–May 31, 1959.
Albi, France, Musée Toulouse-Lauctrec, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27–August 31, 1980, cat. 31 (ill.).
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Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, The Art of Paul Gauguin, May 1–July 31, 1988, cat. 158 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, September 17–December 11, 1988; and Paris, Grand Palais, January 10–April 24, 1989.
Moscow, The Pushkin Museum, Gauguin in Russia, May-June, 1989, cat. 30 (ill.); Leningrad [St. Petersburg], The Hermitage, July-October 1989.
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Paul Gauguin-Tahiti, February 7-June 1, 1998, cat. 44 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South, September 22, 2001-January 13, 2002, cat. 141 (ill.), traveled to The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, February 9-June 6, 2002.
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Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, June 25-Sept. 10. 2017; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Oct. 9, 2017-Jan. 1, 2018.
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Gauguin Portraits, May 24 - September 8 2019, cat. 85; London, The National Gallery, October 9 2019 - January 26 - 2020.

Gauguin Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, February 18, 1895, lot 32; bought in for 300 francs; given by the artist to Daniel de Monfreid (died 1929), Paris; by descent to Mme Daniel de Monfreid, Paris; by descent to her daughter, Mme Huc de Monfreid; sold to Jacques Seligmann, Paris and New York, 1937 [see New York 1937 and Vogue 1937]. Stephen C. Clark, New York by 1938 [see Rewald 1938]. Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, Chicago by 1955 [see Chicago 1955]; by descent to Mr. Charles Deering McCormick; on extended loan to the Art Institute, 1970; given to the Art Institute, 1980.

Wildenstein Gauguin 1964 497

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