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The Art Institute of Chicago
Merahi metua no Tehamana (Tehamana Has Many Parents or The Ancestors of Tehamana)
Description
In this portrait, the 13-year-old Tahitian girl named Tehamana appears stoic, shoulders squared and gaze unflinching. She wears a missionary dress and wields a Samoan fan as white flowers tumble from her hair. The ripe mango beside her alludes to fertility. In the background, Gauguin combined various non-European emblems—glyphs derived from an Easter Island tablet and a female deity inspired by Polynesian and Hindu sources—to build a generic sense of foreigness and mystery, transforming Tehamana into the embodiment of his own desire.
Provenance
Gauguin Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, February 18, 1895, lot 32; bought in for 300 francs; given by the artist to Daniel de Monfreid (died 1929), Paris; by descent to Mme Daniel de Monfreid, Paris; by descent to her daughter, Mme Huc de Monfreid; sold to Jacques Seligmann, Paris and New York, 1937 [see New York 1937 and Vogue 1937]. Stephen C. Clark, New York by 1938 [see Rewald 1938]. Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, Chicago by 1955 [see Chicago 1955]; by descent to Mr. Charles Deering McCormick; on extended loan to the Art Institute, 1970; given to the Art Institute, 1980.
Dimensions
75 × 53 cm (29 1/2 × 20 7/8 in.)
Movement / Period
Accession No
60812
Official Citations
Curatorial Affinity Stream
Continuing the Universe of Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
Post-Impressionism • France • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries
Continuous Discovery