201806126

Gauguin’s Spirit of the Dead Watching1 portrayed the ‘primitive’ culture of Polynesia2

Painted in 1892, Spirit of the Dead Watching3 (116.05 x 134.62 x 13.34 cm) is arguably
the most important artwork of the French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (1848–1903).4
Gauguin painted it during his voyage to Tahiti.5 The painting provides the audience with a lens
through which they can view the Gaugin’s perception of the “exotic” and the “primitive” during
the late 19th century. Gauguin’s work can be seen as serving to misrepresent aspects of a culture
perceived ‘inferior’ and ‘primitive.’ Gaugin, a Parisian, fled far from urban civilization in search
of a primitive paradise free from the constraints of modern society where he could create
“primitive” art. His painting shows Gaugin’s Tahitian “mistress,” a 14-year-old girl named
Tehura, nakedly lying on her stomach. But did Spirit of the Dead Watching manifest Gauguin’s
primitivism? Did it create a sort of “background of terror”? It is reported that “…Gauguin was
one of a host of contemporary artists… for whom a 'primitive'… subject-matter was a
fashionable…option6.” This essay, therefore, defends the thesis that Spirit of the Dead Watching
depicted a ‘primitive’ culture, conveyed a sense of ‘terror’ through analysis of its subject-matter,
meaning, etc.
Gauguin sought to arouse disturbing and fearful feelings from the spectators. In his
diary,7 Gauguin reveal his way of doing so: “The sheet…must be yellow, because in this color, it
provokes something unexpected from the spectator… I need a background of terror; purple is
clearly indicated.” The figure in the background, an older woman in a black cloak, is said to be
representative of a spirit who watches Tehura. The title of Gauguin’s painting “Manao Tupapau”
implies a double meaning: “watching the spirit of the dead” or “the spirit of the dead watching,”
These two interpretations provide completely distinct perceptions of the artwork. The artist is in
a sense raises the question who is causing the terror in the painting. Is it the spectator? Is it the
spirit in the background? Or perhaps Gauguin himself? This ambiguity is reflected by the gaze
of the two figures. Tehura stares at the spectator, while the spirit stares at Tehura. This triangular
gaze is in a sense similar to that seen in Manet’s Olympia. This connection is obvious and
intentional especially that Gauguin made his own version of Olympia one year before he painted
the Spirit of the Dead Watching. The ties between these two artworks brings into question
Gauguin’s intentions in representing the central woman of the painting.
The painting depicts a primitive culture for several reasons. The term primitive means
adopting a Eurocentric, a Western-centered view of an alien culture. In a sense, here, primitive
Polynesian culture, depicted in the painting, is the antithesis of the urban, modern Paris, the
artist’s hometown. Gauguin's symbolism, his desire to be "mysterious," is clear. He intended
more than simply a beautifully painted nude. Gauguin mentioned that he is representing Tehura’s
1
Manao Tupapaou
2

3
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877, oil on canvas 83-1/2 x 108-3/4 inches
4
Glantz, P. et al. (2001). How Caillebotte’s legacy was forgotten, Oxford Art Journal. P. 49
5
French colony
6

7
Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal
fear of tupapaus, the myth that Native Polynesians believed to be spirits of the dead in the form
of phosphorescent light. Of course, Gauguin did not believe in such myth, and it seems as if he is
purely portraying Tehura as immersed in irrationality and mysticism. This is a typical sort of
stereotype that is often cast over natives by Westerners. To better decipher the meaning of the
painting, it is important to take into consideration that it was painted by a Westerner in and about
a colonized island, meaning that it is wise to consider the conditions and the context in which the
painting was painted. It is known that there is power imbalance between the French artist and the
subject matter – colonized Tehura, who is Gauguin’s “mistress,” though it’s unlikely the affair
was consensual- Tehura was only 14 and Gaugin was 43. Gauguin was also known to have
syphilis, which he infected Tehura with that disease. In this sense, the only source of Tehura’s
fear comes from Gauguin’s sexual abuse.  
Clearly, Manao Tupapa’u was painted in a Synthetic, Symbolist, and Primitivist style. It
is known that Gauguin made his own version of Manet’s Olympia, which inspired him to paint
the spirit of the dead in his Tahitian trip. Gauguin’s Tahitian pictures are thus a hybrid of various
Western and Eastern sources, creating a new synthetic style that combined decorative abstract
patterning with figuration.

Notoriously confusing, Gauguin was content with his work being difficult to decipher.

Paul Gauguin styled himself and his art as “savage.”

Manao Tupapa’u (Spirit of the Dead Watching), 1892 (figure 8), the first of multiple depictions
of the female nude in bed, clearly is painted in a Synthetic, Symbolist, and Primitivist style that
takes on this connection between poetry and literature.

The painting is bold and deliberately naïve, paying little heed to perspective or anatomy but
nonetheless coming across as an entirely accurate portrait of its own distorted world.
After his death, Gauguin's art was celebrated by what is known as the Primitivist movement,
which valued a childlike purity over refinement or draftsmanship.

During his time on the island he took a native wife, the thirteen year-old Teha’amana, whom
Gauguin called Tehura. He would paint and sculpt her several times, most notably in the
painting Spirit of the Dead Watching. In this we see the young woman stretched out upon a bed,
nude, pensively eyeing the viewer, whilst behind her there is a strange, ghostly presence dressed
in a black shroud watching over her. It’s believed to be a tupapau, a traditional Polynesian spirit
from the underworld. To some critics, the ambiguous look of Teha’amana should be read as her
anxiety towards Gauguin’s predatory sexuality rather than a concern for ancestral spirits.

 to move to an exotic, preindustrial locale and escape his money troubles. He eventually set sail
for Tahiti in 1891. His first major Tahitian canvas, Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary), dresses a
Christian theme in Polynesian guise (51.112.2). A Tahitian Virgin Mary is worshipped by two
other Tahitian women dressed in colorful pareus in a lush, tropical landscape. The composition is
based on a photograph that Gauguin had brought with him of a bas-relief in the Javanese temple
of Borobudur. Another photograph that Gauguin packed, of Manet‘s Olympia, inspired the
masterwork from his first Tahitian trip, Manao Tupapau (Spirit of the Dead Watching) (Albright-
Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo). Gauguin’s Tahitian pictures are thus a hybrid of various Western
and Eastern sources, creating a new synthetic style that combined decorative abstract patterning
with figuration. 

From this description, one might ascertain that the girl, who, according to Gauguin, was just
thirteen years old at the time, is afraid of the specter. The artist later described their relationship
as representing a series of dualities, including “youth and old age, light and darkness, and life
and death.” Alternatively, could her apprehension be provoked by what she sees beyond the
picture plane? During his time in Tahiti, Gauguin assumed the role not only of an artist framing
and executing compositions, often projecting his own primitivist preconceptions in doing so, but
also of a much older man who was in a position to take advantage of his subject. The work’s
mysteriousness creates space for a great deal of open-ended discussion around its content as well
as the artist’s intent.
It’s hard to look with fresh eyes at the most loutish artist of the 19th century, whose lush,
hypersaturated paintings of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands reflect not just gross personal
conduct but imperial inequities, too
Gauguin's symbolism, his desire to be "mysterious," is nowhere more evident than in this canvas.
Perhaps the Olympia of Manet (which Gauguin once copied) is related to it, but clearly Gauguin,
unlike the older master, intended more than simply a beautifully painted nude.
Manao Tupapa’u (Spirit of the Dead Watching), 1892 (figure 8), the first of multiple depictions
of the female nude in bed, clearly is painted in a Synthetic, Symbolist, and Primitivist style that
takes on this connection between poetry and literature.

The title, "Manao Tupapaou", has a doublo meaning: either the girJL fg&**Te thinking of it, or
tho spirit is thinking of her*

The painting is bold and deliberately naïve, paying little heed to perspective or anatomy but
nonetheless coming across as an entirely accurate portrait of its own distorted world.
After his death, Gauguin's art was celebrated by what is known as the Primitivist movement,
which valued a childlike purity over refinement or draftsmanship.
Spirit of the Dead Watching is a particularly intriguing piece, presenting an image that is full of
mystery. A woman lies on a bed, while a strange, black-garbed figure peers at her from nearby,
resting an arm on her bed.
From the title, we can infer that this is a ghost. Whose ghost is it? Could it be that the woman is
dead, and it is her own departed spirit viewing her body?
Or perhaps she is sleeping in a room that is haunted? If she is asleep, maybe the scene represents
a dream? Each viewer is liable to come up with their own interpretation, making "Spirit of the
Dead Watching" a truly fascinating work of art.

This painting was done by Gauguin in 1892. The subject matter is his 14 year old girlfriend, in
reclining nude. In the background he shows the Tahitian spirit of death combined with the belief
that the spirit of death only comes out at night. It is comparable to Grand Odalisque because in
both paintings the women are depicted as exotic

The notion of a South Seas paradise was bunk already a century ago, by which time Polynesia
had become ruinously civilized.

Is it then ethical to display the works of Paul Gauguin, knowing that he likely raped his subjects?
In the case of Spirit of The Dead Watching I would argue a hard no, or perhaps a reluctant yes
with strong conditions. The work is similar in form to erotic female nudes by artists like Manet
and Degas, whom Gauguin idealised. The model in Spirit of The Dead Watching was 14, her
name Tehura. She was Christian. She is often called Paul Gauguin’s girlfriend, though it’s
unlikely the relationship was consensual- Gaugin was 43 when he first sailed for Tahiti. In
academic theory, the painting has two primary readings, neither being particularly savoury.
The first, that Gauguin gave when the work was sent back to Paris for sale, spins a tale of native
superstition: Tehura is terrified of tupapaus, spirits of the dead that glow and illuminate the forest
in the Tahitian night. The second, championed by art historian Nancy Mowell Mathews, counters
that it was in fact Gauguin that Tehura was so frightened of. If we are to run with the second
reading, the work becomes an uncomfortable reminder of Tehura’s reality — we are viewing the
bare body of a rape victim, as painted by her rapist. So should we still be exhibiting it, given the
nature of the conditions it was painted under?
This was an exhibition that took, to a degree, a postcolonial approach to the life and works of
Paul Gauguin- focusing on the role of the artist as a myth maker, a man that mythologised people
and places to suit his artistic agenda. 

During his time on the island he took a native wife, the thirteen year-old Teha’amana, whom
Gauguin called Tehura. He would paint and sculpt her several times, most notably in the
painting Spirit of the Dead Watching. In this we see the young woman stretched out upon a bed,
nude, pensively eyeing the viewer, whilst behind her there is a strange, ghostly presence dressed
in a black shroud watching over her. It’s believed to be a tupapau, a traditional Polynesian spirit
from the underworld. To some critics, the ambiguous look of Teha’amana should be read as her
anxiety towards Gauguin’s predatory sexuality rather than a concern for ancestral spirits.

Paul Gauguin styled himself and his art as “savage.” Although he began his artistic career with
the Impressionists in Paris, during the late 1880s he fled farther and farther from urban
civilization in search of an edenic paradise where he could create pure, “primitive” art. Yet his
self-imposed exile to the South Seas was not so much an escape from Paris as a bid to become
the new leader of the Parisian avant-garde.
 to move to an exotic, preindustrial locale and escape his money troubles. He eventually set sail
for Tahiti in 1891. His first major Tahitian canvas, Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary), dresses a
Christian theme in Polynesian guise (51.112.2). A Tahitian Virgin Mary is worshipped by two
other Tahitian women dressed in colorful pareus in a lush, tropical landscape. The composition is
based on a photograph that Gauguin had brought with him of a bas-relief in the Javanese temple
of Borobudur.

The central figure in this painting is a young Tahitian girl named Teha’amana who lies on her
stomach, glancing sideways at us. In this work, Gauguin said he was trying to represent the
Polynesian fear of the tupapaú, or spirit of the dead, who appears here as an older woman in a
black cloak. On the wall behind the bed are several feathery white forms, which the artist
described as phosphorescent lights that exemplified the interest the spirits take in the living. 
From this description, one might ascertain that the girl, who, according to Gauguin, was just
thirteen years old at the time, is afraid of the specter. The artist later described their relationship
as representing a series of dualities, including “youth and old age, light and darkness, and life
and death.” Alternatively, could her apprehension be provoked by what she sees beyond the
picture plane? During his time in Tahiti, Gauguin assumed the role not only of an artist framing
and executing compositions, often projecting his own primitivist preconceptions in doing so, but
also of a much older man who was in a position to take advantage of his subject. The work’s
mysteriousness creates space for a great deal of open-ended discussion around its content as well
as the artist’s intent.

Historians suggest however, that the real fear was caused by Gauguin’s sexual abuse that takes
this painting to an entirely new level of sexual sadism. Gauguin himself said that Tehura had
never looked hotter than when she was this vulnerable and he vowed to never leave her. Bet she
wishes he had. Gauguin would eventually give Tehura and the rest of the island girls syphilis. 

It’s hard to look with fresh eyes at the most loutish artist of the 19th century, whose lush,
hypersaturated paintings of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands reflect not just gross personal
conduct but imperial inequities, too

or Gauguin, the tropical island held the promise of a ‘primitive paradise’,. However, once
he arrived, Gauguin realized that the place he envisioned did not exist: the island was dealing
with the impacts of colonialism and modernity, and native customs and culture seemed to be
headed towards extinction. In his art, he tried to reimagine this lost paradise and experience the
native Polynesian culture and customs.

many nineteenth-century artists,

among them Gauguin, had already sought out 'primitive' sources and societies,
identifying in them an artistic culture that paralleled the interests of modern Western
artists. Goldwater's

late twentieth century, the term 'primitive' has been described as Eurocentric,
as revealing a Western-centred view of an alien culture (hence my use of inverted commas).
It has been argued that merely by using the word '

At the same time, more positive views of the essential purity and goodness of
'primitive' life, by contrast with the decadence of over-civilized Western societies, were
gaining ground within European culture. Such

A so-called 'primitivist' tradition evolved , which associated

what were perceived as simple lives and societies with purer thoughts and expressions.

modified. Gauguin (as we

have seen) is often identified as the first modern artist for whom this my.!~ of the 'savage'
became the touchstone of his philosophy of art and life.

Noiiy. In all three paintings a 'primitive' culture is represented

through the image of naked or semi-naked women, although

Gauguin's primitivism - that is, his tendency to seek to represent, and to idealize, a supposedly
uncivilized culture - was already clearly in evidence during the years he spent
living and working in Brittany in the mid-1880s.

These issues will also be considered in relation to Gauguin's Tahitian works.

Gauguin's move to Polynesia and the cult of 'the going away' of which it was a part, reveals
the construction of other myths of the ' primitive', particularly in association with the
contemporary discourses of colonialism, and related notions of the exotic and the pagan.

According to statements by Bernard and Gauguin from the period, both artists saw themselves
as depicting 'primitive' subject-matter. Bernard saw Brittany as a land characterized
by a simple poverty and religion. He wrote: ' Atheist

Gauguin defines his primitivism, then, in terms of the 'simplicity', severity and lack of
aturalistic scale which characterize his style of painting in The Vision. He suggests that
~is formal simplifications are themselves symbolic of the 'primitive' culture which they
epresent. In this respect he was following a primitivist tradition which linked 'simple'
r eople with 'purer' thoughts or modes of expression. But

practices. Ciauguin was particularly impressed with 13ernard's so-calletd 't loiso1nriste'
(or 'synthetist') style, in which dark outlines were used to surround and separate areas of
rich colour. This· technique had the effect of counteracting any suggestion of three dimensional
space or depth a

Although The Vision is often seen as a

~hgi~s painting, I would argue that it is as much a manifesto of Gauguin's primitivism.

Gauguin actually
defines his own 'barbarism' in terms of the Eve theme. He describes
a shock between your civilization and my barbarism. Civilization from which you suffer,
barbarism which has been rejuvenation for me. B

the 'other' of sophisticated urban Paris

Painted in 1892, Spirit of the Dead Watching8 (116.05 x 134.62 x 13.34 cm) is arguably
one of the most important artworks of the French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (1848–
1903).9 The painting was created by Gauguin during an extensive trip to Tahiti, a French colony.
It serves us with a window through which we can view the artist’s perception of the “exotic” and
the “primitive” during the late 19th century. Gauguin’s work can be seen as serving to
misrepresent aspects of a culture perceived ‘inferior’ and ‘primitive’ while also producing lively
art. Gaugin began his artistic career in Paris; however, during the late 1880s he fled far from
8
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877, oil on canvas 83-1/2 x 108-3/4 inches
9
Glantz, P. et al. (2001). How Caillebotte’s legacy was forgotten, Oxford Art Journal. P. 49
urban civilization in search of an edenic paradise free from the constraints of modern society
where he could create pure, “primitive” art. It was Tahiti, rich in colonists' privileges, including
cheap food and sensual native women. It was where he painted Spirit of the Dead Watching. The
latter shows Gaugin’s “mistress,” a 14-year-old girl named Tehura, in reclining nude. But did
Spirit of the Dead Watching manifest Gauguin’s primitivism? Was the painting printed in a
Synthetic, Symbolist, and Primitivist style? It is reported that “Despite his avant-garde status,
Gauguin was one of a host of contemporary artists… for whom a 'primitive'… subject-matter
was a fashionable and marketable option.” This essay, therefore, defends the thesis that Spirit of
the Dead Watching depicted a ‘primitive’ culture as painted in Synthetic, Symbolist, and
Primitivist style through analysis of its subject-matter, meaning, context, etc.