French painter 

Title: Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?  

1897

Oil on canvas, 141 x 346 cm

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Image retrieved from Web Gallery of Art: http://www.wga.hu/

Please click the image in order to view in a large window.

1. There is a clear use of contrasting warm and cold colours, helping the viewer to pick out certain characters.

2. The painting is expressionistic, which suggests the painter has something quite subjective to say.

3. Animals and people are more or less treated equally in the painting, strewn about here and there, giving a sense of affinity between them.

1. Nudity - maybe I point out this matter as I'm from a background

where public nudity is a taboo.

2. Interaction between cultures - when I was looking at the picture

in small size, I was seeing different races within the picture but when

clicking the picture large it started to look like the painter is from

different cultural background than the people in the painting, and this

observation leads to the...

3. Oriental look - it seems like the painting is from this angle: someone

(Gauguin) from west is seeing the everyday life of a tribe/community as

exciting and exotic.

I'm not used to see that that many different animals free around people. I'm used to see dogs in a leash and indoor cats. But there are also a duck, a goat, etc.

2. Nudity

There is lots of nudity in the painting. I'm not used to that much nudity.

3. Blue god statue

There is a blue god statue that is kind of protecting the people around it. It feels like religion is expressed feely and it's not very common around me.

I just felt the environment in the painting was presented very peacefully.

2. Enjoyable

I also felt the people in the painting were very much enjoying themselves, chattering with 

others, lying on the ground, with animals surrounded.

3. The color used was contrast, seems purposely trying to express something.

1. The man in the front picking the fruit from the tree reminded me about Adam and Eve, only this time it was not the woman who got the fruit...

2. The statue of the god as it indicates a culture different from my own.

3. Dressing: some of the figures are in fully dressed in long robes, others only have a small cloth around them.

Differences in balance. I feel that there are a great mix of cultural diversity to be seen and somehow in an interesting balance and people enjoying it.

People not interacting so much directly with each other. A bit like the atmosphere of a meditation.

Color blue, earthy muted tones and the presence of Buddhist or some other type of meditative space.

Men and women, old and young, living together with animals and in a state of harmony and communion with the surroundings.

And after reading Guagin's biography most of my thoughts are now with those innocent young women who might have been his salves. It was 1897 and the time of colonialism. I appreciate his talent but also the moral criticism

3. The nature: I felt that the background of the painting was very nice; the water, green field and the mountain. I didn't like the blue rocky surface the people and the animals were placed.

The animals and halfnude people are all sharing the moment surrounded by beautiful nature.

2. Community:

There are clearly some connections and interaction between some of the people. There is a peacefull feeling and it seems like they all get along in their 'paradise'.

3. Religion:

There a the statue in the middle, praying ladies behind and there is also something spiritual in the atmosphere.

2. The old woman on the left

3. The fire in the woods in the background.

All three caught my attention/stood out for me because they looked alarming/disturbing (from my own cultural perspective). The baby looks uncomfortable and somewhat ignored. The old woman looks very sad or upset. The fire looks dangerous, unattended and simply out of place.

2. Somehow cold colours, it looks like the people are freezing: This has something to do with nudity, but also the blue colour reminds me about Finnish (cold) winter.

3. The statue: I have just teached a course about world religions and this statue has something to do with Hinduism, I think.

Full range of life represented from young to old

All of us lving together, young, old, animals etc