Manao tupapau (L'Esprit des morts veille)

Gauguin painted this in 1892, during his first stay in Tahiti, and the girl lying face down is Teha'amana, the very young Tahitian he was living with. By his own account he came home late one night to find her frozen in the dark, terrified of the tupapau, the spirit of the dead that Tahitians believed moved through the island at night. The dark figure in profile against the wall is that spirit, and the pale flecks scattered behind her are the glow Gauguin said such spirits give off. He wrote about the picture at length in letters, partly to explain, partly to sell a story back in Paris. What he mostly saw when he described it was the play of the girl's fear against the yellows and violets he had chosen.