Description
In Auti Te Pape, a seated nude rests beside a river while another woman raises her arms in preparation to enter the water. Paul Gauguin made this color woodcut in 1893–94 as part of the Noa Noa project. The women and riverbank form a scene of rest and anticipated movement, giving the composition a quiet tension between an already settled body and one about to change position.
The print is related to Gauguin’s imagined account of Tahiti, but it need not be read as a literal illustration of a particular passage. Cut shapes and printed color give the setting its own visual logic, bringing the figures into close relationship with the surrounding water and land. The subject stays approachable through recognizable gestures. Bathing becomes a way to explore the meeting of human bodies, landscape and an atmosphere shaped by memory.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Paul Gauguin collection.
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