Mahana no atua (Day of the God)

Museum record 27943: Mahana no atua (Day of the God) by Paul Gauguin. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For Mahana no atua (Day of the God) (record 27943), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

Discover

In this tropical paradise of the artist’s invention, a deity presides over figures walking and resting on an embankment. Rhythmically arranged in groups of two and three, the figures appear more as symbolic forms than as portraits of individuals. Pools of water in interlocking, abstract zones of acidic color surround the feet of a bather, who is flanked by two prone figures—or perhaps the same person seen from two angles. Unlike his other Tahitian-inspired landscapes, this painting was produced in Paris…