Description
Mahana no atua (Day of the God) – Gauguin’s Tahitian altar built out of colour
Paul Gauguin painted Mahana no atua in Paris in 1894, between his two stays on Tahiti. It records no ceremony he actually witnessed; it is an image assembled from memory. A dark idol stands in the upper band, flanked by dancing and music-making figures; three women lie and sit on pink sand across the middle; and the lower part of the canvas breaks down into patches of pure colour that no longer describe water but stand for themselves. The work is held by the Art Institute of Chicago under accession number 1926.198.
What the painting shows
The composition divides into three horizontal bands. At the top is the statue of the deity, ringed by figures in motion. Below it lie three female bodies: one curled on its side, one sitting upright with its feet in the water, one stretched out flat. They are not portraits but conditions – birth, life and death, on the reading most often given to the scene. The bottom third of the canvas becomes a run of irregular blue, yellow and violet patches.
Technique: oil on linen
The support is not the usual cotton canvas but a finer linen weave. The difference shows at close range: linen is woven more irregularly and more tautly, and Gauguin did not cover it completely with paint – in several places the weave comes through the thin layer and takes part in the tone. The colours are laid on flat, outlined with a dark line, without modelling and without depth perspective.
The inscription that is not a watermark
Along the lower edge, in the paint itself and written by hand, are the words MAHANA no ATUA and Gauguin 94. That is the painter’s own brushstroke and part of the original work – not a watermark added afterwards, and not a publisher’s mark. On the reproduction it is painted just like the rest of the scene, because it belongs to the work.
How large the canvas is – two sources disagree
This is worth stating plainly: two reliable sources give different measurements. The Art Institute of Chicago records 68 x 91 cm; Wikidata records 66 x 87 cm. The year, the museum and the accession number agree in both entries – only the measurements differ. It makes no difference to choosing a format, because the ratio between the sides is almost the same either way, and a landscape work stays landscape.
How a hand-painted reproduction is made
The reproduction is painted by hand, in oils on canvas, brushstroke by brushstroke. On this subject the lower band takes the most care: the patches have to stay separate and clean, because blending them loses exactly what makes the work modern. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished piece for approval.
- Subject: the idol with attendant figures, three women on pink sand, and the lower band of flat colour patches.
- Technique: oil on linen, flat colour with a pronounced outline.
- Sizes: landscape format, from 40 x 30 cm to 200 x 150 cm; the most frequently chosen are 100 x 75 cm and 120 x 90 cm.
- Worth knowing: the title is Tahitian, yet the work was made in Paris, from memory and from the painter’s own earlier drawings.
If the same Tahitian period interests you, look also at Fatata te Miti (By the Sea), Three Tahitian Women and Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau), where the same sand colours and the same flat handling return.
