Paul Gauguin at the Museum. Are you jealous? The story of one painting by Paul Gauguin Paul Gauguin believed and you are jealous

French artist Paul Gauguin He traveled a lot, but a special place for him was the island of Tahiti - the land of “ecstasy, tranquility and art,” which became a second home for the artist. It is here that he writes his most outstanding works, one of which is "Are you jealous?"- deserves special attention.

Paul Gauguin first arrived in Tahiti in 1891. He hoped to find here the embodiment of his dream of a golden age, of life in harmony with nature and people. The port of Papeete that met him disappointed the artist: the unremarkable town, the cold reception of the local colonists, the lack of orders for portraits forced him to look for a new refuge. Gauguin spent about two years in the native village of Mataiea; this was one of the most fruitful periods in his work: in 2 years he painted about 80 canvases. 1893-1895 he spends time in France and then leaves again for Oceania, never to return.

Gauguin always spoke of Tahiti with particular warmth: “I was captivated by this land and its people, simple, not spoiled by civilization. To create something new, we must turn to our origins, to the childhood of humanity. The Eve I choose is almost an animal, so she remains chaste, even naked. All the Venuses exhibited at the Salon look indecent, disgustingly lustful...” Gauguin never tired of admiring Tahitian women, their seriousness and simplicity, majesty and spontaneity, unusual beauty and natural charm. He wrote them on all his canvases.

Painting “Oh, are you jealous?” was painted during Gauguin’s first stay in Tahiti, in 1892. It was during this period of creativity that an extraordinary harmony of color and shapes appeared in his style. Starting from an ordinary plot, observed in the everyday life of Tahitian women, the artist creates real masterpieces in which color becomes the main carrier of symbolic content. Critic Paul Delaroche wrote: “If Gauguin, representing jealousy, does it through pink and purple, then it seems that all of nature takes part in it.”

The artist explained his creative style during this period as follows: “I take as a pretext any theme borrowed from life or nature, and, despite the placement of lines and colors, I get a symphony and harmony that does not represent anything completely real in the exact meaning of the word...” Gauguin denied the reality that the realists wrote - he created a different one.

The plot of the film “Are you jealous?” also seen in the everyday life of Tahitian women: aboriginal sisters, after swimming, bask on the shore and talk about love. One of the memories suddenly makes one of the sisters jealous, which made the second suddenly sit down on the sand and exclaim: “Oh, you’re jealous!” The artist wrote these words in the lower left corner of the canvas, reproducing Tahitian speech in Latin letters. From this random episode of someone else's life a masterpiece of art was born.

Both girls depicted in the picture are naked, but in their nakedness, despite the sensual poses, there is nothing shameful, strange, erotic or vulgar. Their nudity is as natural as the unusually vibrant exotic nature around them. According to European canons of beauty, they can hardly be called attractive, but to Gauguin they seem beautiful, and he fully manages to capture his emotional state on canvas.

Gauguin attached particular importance to this painting. In 1892 he told a friend in a letter: “I painted a magnificent picture of nudes recently, two women on the beach, which I think is the best I have ever done.” Tahitian women are mysterious and inexplicably beautiful.

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Paul Gauguin traveled a lot, but the island of Tahiti was a special place for him - the land of “ecstasy, tranquility and art.” It is here that he writes his most outstanding works, one of which is “Are you jealous?” - deserves special attention.

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