A painting a day · No. 36 of 38
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
1897–1898 · Oil on canvas · Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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The story
Painted in Tahiti, ill and in debt, as what Gauguin said would be his last work. It is a whole life on one canvas.
Look closer
- Read it right to left: a baby, then young adults, then an old woman at the far left.
- The title is written in the top-left corner, on a yellow patch.
- The blue idol in the background.
Did you know
It is almost four metres wide. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston bought it in 1936.
Why we can show it
Paul Gauguin died in 1903. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1974. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.