University of Leeds
School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies
SAVAGE
In his journals and letters, Gauguin repeatedly wrote that he was a ‘savage’. By adopting this label, he sought to separate himself from European ‘civilisation’ and align himself with what he imagined as a pure, primitive world.
This word reveals both his romantic fantasies about non-Western cultures and the colonial prejudices he carried.
He spent part of his childhood in Peru, an experience that pushed him to see himself as someone “outside” European civilization.
In the late 19th century, he traveled to Tahiti, imagining it as a pure, untouched paradise.
His paintings often show Indigenous women as exotic, sexual, and mysterious.
Tahitian Women Bathing
Paul Gauguin
French
1892
Oil on paper, laid down
on canvas
109.9×89.5 cm
Gauguin painted this work during his time in Tahiti, a place shaped by French colonial rule.
The painting appears calm, yet it reflects how Western artists often turned Indigenous women into symbols rather than individuals.
Question：When you look at this scene, are you seeing the women themselves—or Gauguin’s imagined Tahiti?
Two Tahitian Women
Paul Gauguin
French
1899
Oil on Canvas
94×72.4 cm
Gauguin frequently portrayed Tahitian women through a romanticized, exotic lens.
Their bodies are presented as serene and natural, but this serenity hides the unequal colonial relationship that shaped their representation.
1848
Born in Paris, France.
1849-55
Spent early childhood in Lima, Peru.
1870s
Worked on the Paris stock exchange and began painting in his spare time.
1888-89
Stayed in Pont-Aven, Brittany; his work moved toward Symbolism.
1891
Departed France for Tahiti, seeking a so-called “untouched paradise”.
1893
Returned to France briefly; disappointed with response to his Tahitian-themed paintings.
1901-03
Moved to the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia; died May 8, 1903.