Description
Paul Gauguin – Maternity (Women on the Seashore) – hand-painted oil painting reproduction
Three women stand and sit by the sea: the one on the right is nursing a child, the other two carry breadfruit and flowers. The canvas was painted in 1899 at Punaauia in Tahiti, oil on canvas, 95.5 × 73.5 cm, and is held by the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Here the scene is taken up by the painter’s hand: a hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas, painted to order and never printed. The museum records the measurement as height by width, and the work carries accession number ГЭ-8979.
A scene with no event in it
Nothing happens in this painting. Nobody speaks, nobody looks out at us, there is no incident – only three figures, sand, sea and fruit held in the hands. Gauguin dropped the narrative he built elsewhere out of symbols and kept only presence. The colour is laid in broad, quiet areas, the contours are soft, and it is precisely this absence of event that makes the work read as the portrait of a condition rather than of a moment.
The occasion was a birth
The museum record ties the work to one specific event: in 1899 Gauguin’s Tahitian partner Pahura gave birth to a son in Tahiti, and the nursing woman on the right is read as that birth. This is the museum’s reading, not a statement by the painter – Gauguin did not explain the scene himself. We give it therefore as an interpretation the record proposes, and not as documented intent.
Two versions, and which one this is
Two maternity canvases were painted in 1899, which is a frequent source of confusion when searching. This is the Hermitage version: it came from the collection of Sergei Shchukin, passed after the revolution to the Museum of New Western Art in Moscow, and from there to St Petersburg in 1948. The other, Maternité II, was long in private hands. Our reproduction follows the Hermitage version – its year, museum and proportions all agree with that record.
A hand-painted reproduction for your home
The photographs above show this work as it was made here. We paint it in several sizes; 74 × 96 cm is closest to the original, while for a larger wall 100 × 130 cm is a frequent choice. The sandy and rose tones are quiet and carry a room without noise, which makes the painting work well in a bedroom or a living room. Another Gauguin from the same collection is in Three Tahitian Women; motherhood in Christian language is Ia Orana Maria, and the whole Tahitian summation Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?.
- Subject: Maternity (Women on the Seashore), Paul Gauguin, 1899
- Technique: hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas – never printed
- Original: 73.5 × 95.5 cm, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, formerly the Sergei Shchukin collection
- Interesting fact: two maternity canvases were painted in 1899; this is the Hermitage version, not the one in private hands
