Head of a Tahitian Woman (1891): Art, History and Details

Head of a Tahitian Woman (1891) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This drawing belongs to a group of highly finished portrait drawings of Tahitians made by Paul Gauguin shortly after his arrival in the South Seas. While getting used to this new place, Gauguin initially avoided painting, preferring first to familiarize himself with the landscape and people through observation and drawing. The meticulous quality of this graphite study suggests that it was made from life. The woman’s noble face and enigmatic expression allude to the spirituality and melancholy that Gauguin sought to conjure in his Polynesian work.

Object facts

• Title: Head of a Tahitian Woman
• Date: 1891
• Creator attribution: Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: graphite with stumping and graphite wash on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 30.5 x 24.4 cm (12 x 9 5/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1949.439

A detail from the museum

In his writings, Gauguin often referred to his drawings as "documents"—records of motifs and ideas he could use later.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Morice, Charles. Paul Gauguin. Paris: H. Floury, 1919.
• Rewald, John. Gauguin. New York: Hyperion Press, 1938.
• A Loan Exhibition of Paul Gauguin For the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Exh. Cat. New York: Wildenstein, 1946.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.