Deathbed portrait of Aristide 'Atiti' Suhas, died 5 March 1892, 1.5 years old

In March 1892 Gauguin had been living in Tahiti for about a year, and had grown close to a neighbouring family, the Suhas. Their little boy, Aristide, whom everyone called Atiti, died suddenly on the fifth of that month, a year and a half old. Gauguin painted him as he lay dead: a rosary threaded through the child's folded hands, a blue ribbon and medallion at his neck, the pillow and a small bouquet bright against his blue-black hair and a dark ground. He was less interested in a faithful record than in the feeling of the loss, told in the simplified shapes and hot colour he was working out on the island. The story does not quite end on the canvas. Two other pictures Gauguin had painted for the child's nursery were placed in the grave and buried with him. This portrait stayed with the family, passed to Atiti's sister Florida, and reached the Kroller-Muller only in 1951.