Mata Mua

Gauguin sailed for Tahiti in 1891 expecting to find an untouched paradise, and found instead a French colony with churches, traders and imported disease. So he painted the island he had wanted rather than the one he got. Made in late 1892, this scene sets women worshipping Hina, the old Tahitian moon goddess, under the trees, with a flute player in front and dancers behind, a religion that colonial rule had already largely swept away. The title, in Tahitian, means in olden times. For decades it was the most treasured painting in the collection of Carmen Thyssen, hanging in Madrid among the works she had gathered.