La Sieste

Gauguin sailed to Tahiti in 1891 expecting to find an untouched paradise. What he actually found was an island already remade by 60 years of French rule and missionaries, and this quiet veranda scene shows it plainly. The women rest in the shade through the hot afternoon, but they wear the loose European mission dresses the churches had brought in, and one of them stands doing her ironing. Gauguin kept changing the picture as he went. The skirt of the woman in front was once bright red, and a dog sat where the basket now rests in the lower corner. He left the faces calm and almost expressionless, the heat of the day settled over everyone on the porch.