Manao tupapau (She Thinks of the Ghost or The Ghost Thinks of Her), from the Noa Noa Suite

Manao tupapau (She Thinks of the Ghost or The Ghost Thinks of Her), from the Noa Noa Suite, was conceived by Paul Gauguin French, 1848-1903 between 1893 and 1894. This pivotal work represents the artist’s commitment to rejuvenating the woodcut medium, which he utilized heavily to illustrate the manuscript for his Tahitian memoir, Noa Noa. The technique employed by Gauguin here is highly unorthodox and contributes significantly to the print’s distinctive aesthetic. He created the image using an end-grain boxwood block, preparing the surface with a commercially manufactured gray ground, which was then sealed with an opaque pink oil medium before being inked in black ink. This layered approach allows for a rich interplay between texture and tonality, challenging traditional printmaking conventions.

Although Gauguin originated in France, the subject matter reflects his intense engagement with Polynesian life and spiritual beliefs. The image refers directly to his major oil painting of the same title, depicting a figure, often interpreted as his young Tahitian partner, grappling with the fear or presence of the ancestral spirit, the tupapau. Gauguin sought to portray the primal power of myth and superstition through flattened planes and intense, stark contrasts, centralizing his Post-Impressionist explorations into graphic arts. This impression resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, serving as essential documentation of Gauguin's late 19th-century stylistic shift. As is true for many of the great master’s graphic works, high-resolution images of these transformative prints are frequently available in the public domain for scholarly research.