Look first
The Call
Paul Gauguin · 1902
A pointing gesture opens a mystery the painting refuses to explain.
What to notice
Look at the intense pink ground against the green landscape; color makes the scene feel imagined rather than observed.
Discover
Gauguin painted this late work in Polynesia while exploring themes of fate, memory, and mortality. Figures derived partly from older art become actors in an invented symbolic world.
Source institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights status: CC0 / Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access
Rights status: CC0 / Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access
Cleveland Museum of Art
Primary sourceSource & image rights verified for launch
