Focus on this artwork and discuss the Description.
The inscription below the idol reads "MERAHI METUA NO | TEHAMANA". This means "Teha'amana has many parents", a reference to Teha'amana possessing foster-parents as well as her natural parents in accordance with the faʼaʼamu Tahitian custom (Gauguin had to negotiate with both sets of parents when arranging the marriage). The placement of the inscription below the idol may also emphasise the belief that all Tahitians descended from the union of the ancient deities Hina and Ta'aroa.Danielsson thought the painting a farewell portrait, depicting Teha'amana in regal state dressed in her best churchgoing clothes and holding a plaited palm fan, a symbol of beauty. The red tiare flower she wears at her left ear signifies she is married. When he was researching his book, Danielsson showed a photograph of the portrait to a native, Puto'ura a Ta'iterafa'ato'a, fifteen years old in 1893 when the portrait was painted. Ta'iterafa'ato'a recognised Teha'amana at once, identifying the scar tissue above her right eye as the result of an accident she suffered when she was very young riding a pony, defying her parents. The portrait was bought in at Gauguin's 1895 Hôtel Drouot auction at only 300 francs and subsequently gifted to Daniel de Monfreid, Gauguin's great champion in Tahiti, suggesting it held sentimental value for Gauguin.Charles Stuckey remarks that the two ripe mangoes, placed on a low table to Teha'amana's right, probably represented the bounty of Tahiti, if not Teha'amana's fertility herself. The idol is taken to be a representation of Hina, borrowed from Hindu sculptures presenting the life-giving gesture. As a counterfoil, the heads that hover above each of Teha'amana's shoulders are evil spirits, suggesting a dialogue between good and evil or between life and death. The glyphs behind Teha'amana's head are Rongorongo glyphs from Easter Island, although Gauguin's examples are imaginary. These glyphs had been discovered scarcely thirty years earlier and Gauguin would have seen examples both at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and in Papeete, where a local bishop researching them had a number of examples in his care. The glyphs have never been deciphered and Gauguin's intention was probably to emphasise the impenetrability of Tahitian culture. In his Noa Noa account, he remarked he found Tehama'ana herself impenetrable, thus perhaps the Mona Lisa expression he gives her in the portrait.The portrait is closely based on a charcoal study and, taken together with the unduly short proportions of the arms, suggests the portrait may not have been painted directly from the model.
tiare evil spirits Papeete Hindu sculptures Rongorongo Hôtel Drouot left Easter Island Ta'aroa Mona Lisa Hina Tahiti Daniel de Monfreid Exposition Universelle