Manao tupapau (She Thinks of the Ghost or The Ghost Thinks of Her), from L’estampe originale

Manao tupapau (She Thinks of the Ghost or The Ghost Thinks of Her), from L’estampe originale, is a significant lithograph created by Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) in 1894. This expressive print was executed in black ink on ivory wove paper, showcasing the artist’s continued fascination with Polynesian spirituality and superstition, rendered through the bold visual language he developed in Tahiti. The paper, now naturally discolored to a light brown hue, shows the aging typical of late 19th-century works on paper. This piece was published as part of the influential portfolio L’estampe originale between 1893 and 1895, a major French effort to promote contemporary fine art prints and graphic innovation.

Gauguin first explored this subject matter in a highly symbolic oil painting completed two years prior, and the lithograph captures the original’s intense, subjective atmosphere. The composition translates the haunting psychological mood of the painting into stark, high-contrast terms, relying on the materiality of black ink to define form and shadow. The scene typically features a nude figure lying prone, observed by a spectral presence that embodies fear and the unknown, addressing universal themes of vulnerability and death. Although rooted in the artist's experiences abroad, this exploration of symbolic themes remains fundamentally part of the Post-Impressionist movement flourishing in France during the 1890s.

The enduring appeal and cultural importance of the subject have ensured its wide circulation; today, many high-resolution reproductions of Gauguin’s Manao tupapau are available through public domain image archives. This particular impression of the lithograph resides in the extensive collection of nineteenth-century prints and works on paper held by the Art Institute of Chicago, providing scholars and the public an invaluable resource for studying Gauguin’s unique approach to printmaking.