{"id":83471,"date":"2021-09-02T18:01:41","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T16:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/uncategorized\/maternity-women-on-the-seashore\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T20:43:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T18:43:47","slug":"maternity-women-on-the-seashore","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/paul-gauguin\/maternity-women-on-the-seashore\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Gauguin \u2013 Maternity (Women on the Seashore)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Paul Gauguin \u2013 Maternity (Women on the Seashore) \u2013 hand-painted oil painting reproduction<\/h2>\n

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<\/strong> at Punaauia in Tahiti, oil on canvas, 95.5 \u00d7 73.5 cm<\/strong>, and is held by the Hermitage Museum<\/strong> in St Petersburg. Here the scene is taken up by the painter\u2019s hand: a hand-painted oil painting reproduction<\/strong> on canvas, painted to order and never printed. The museum records the measurement as height by width, and the work carries accession number \u0413\u042d-8979.<\/p>\n

A scene with no event in it<\/h3>\n

Nothing happens in this painting. Nobody speaks, nobody looks out at us, there is no incident \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

The occasion was a birth<\/h3>\n

The museum record ties the work to one specific event: in 1899 Gauguin\u2019s Tahitian partner Pahura gave birth to a son<\/strong> in Tahiti, and the nursing woman on the right is read as that birth. This is the museum\u2019s reading, not a statement by the painter \u2013 Gauguin did not explain the scene himself. We give it therefore as an interpretation the record proposes, and not as documented intent.<\/p>\n

Two versions, and which one this is<\/h3>\n

Two maternity canvases were painted in 1899<\/strong>, which is a frequent source of confusion when searching. This is the Hermitage<\/strong> version: it came from the collection of Sergei Shchukin<\/strong>, passed after the revolution to the Museum of New Western Art in Moscow, and from there to St Petersburg in 1948<\/strong>. The other, Maternit\u00e9 II<\/em>, was long in private hands. Our reproduction follows the Hermitage version \u2013 its year, museum and proportions all agree with that record.<\/p>\n

A hand-painted reproduction for your home<\/h3>\n

The photographs above show this work as it was made here. We paint it in several sizes; 74 \u00d7 96 cm is closest to the original, while for a larger wall 100 \u00d7 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<\/a>; motherhood in Christian language is Ia Orana Maria<\/a>, and the whole Tahitian summation Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?<\/a>.<\/p>\n