Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
Te Faruru (Here We Make Love), from Noa Noa, Winter 1893–94
Woodcut printed in black, light brown, yellow, and red on cream wove paper, mounted on beige cardboard
Sheet: 14 1/8 x 8 1/16 in. (35.9 x 20.5 cm)
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1962.70
This woodcut and three others in this exhibition are from a famous series known as Noa Noa (meaning “fragrant scent” in Tahitian), inspired by Gauguin’s stay in Tahiti from 1891 to 1893. The networks of white lines scratched into and gouged out of the hard surface of boxwood are characteristic of Gauguin’s woodcut technique. In this work, they impart a spectral quality to the entwined bodies of the lovers who emerge out of the darkness of night.