Maruru (Offerings of Gratitude), from the Noa Noa Suite, is a compelling wood-block print created by Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) between 1893 and 1894. This impression, printed in black ink on cream wove paper, showcases the powerful graphic quality Gauguin sought following his first journey to Tahiti. Although Gauguin executed the original woodblocks himself, this particular edition was printed later by Max Kahn (American, born Russia, 1902-2005), who helped ensure the wide dissemination of these crucial Symbolist images. The raw, stylized cutting inherent to the wood-block medium perfectly complements the artist's exploration of primal forms and spiritual themes.
The print belongs to the influential Noa Noa Suite, a collection of images intended to accompany the artist's autobiographical manuscript detailing his experience living in the South Seas. The title, Maruru, translates from Tahitian as "gratitude" or "thank you," implying a reverence for the natural or spiritual life Gauguin attempted to capture. Gauguin intentionally simplified forms and compositions, relying on stark contrast and planar arrangements derived from French aesthetic traditions, applied here to depict indigenous life. These pioneering prints represent a significant moment in the history of art, marking a definitive move toward abstraction and the influence of non-Western cultures in modern Western painting and printmaking.
Gauguin utilized the inherent difficulty and textured quality of the wood-block process to achieve a rough, almost primitive aesthetic, reinforcing his thematic content. As a key example of the Symbolist movement, this piece remains a canonical study of late 19th-century France and its artistic engagement with exoticism. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this impression as part of its expansive collection of European prints. Due to its age and cultural significance, high-resolution images of this work are frequently made available through the institution's collections, often entering the public domain for scholarly use.
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