Tahitian Faces (Frontal View and Profiles)

Tahitian Faces (Frontal View and Profiles) is an evocative charcoal drawing created by Paul Gauguin between 1894 and 1904. Executed on laid paper, this piece captures the artist's persistent fascination with the people of French Polynesia, particularly the women he encountered during his stays in the South Seas. The drawing showcases multiple studies of female faces, rendered in bold, decisive lines and heavy shading typical of the charcoal medium. Gauguin frequently used intense, concentrated drawings like this one as preparatory studies to refine forms and expressions before integrating them into larger compositions, oil paintings, or woodcut prints.

The arrangement of full frontal views juxtaposed with stark profiles allows the viewer to study the idealized yet sculptural features the artist assigned to his Polynesian subjects. The dating places the work firmly within Gauguin’s later period, when his exploration of indigenous subjects and non-Western iconography defined his artistic output. This focus served as a visual critique of the perceived degeneracy of European modernity, elevating the Tahitian women as symbols of a more authentic, primitive existence. Gauguin employed the highly plastic quality of the charcoal to define contours and volume, emphasizing the strong, simplified lines characteristic of his Post-Impressionist style.

This important drawing is part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. While Gauguin’s major oil paintings from this period are widely celebrated, works like Tahitian Faces offer intimate insight into the development of his pictorial language and draftsmanship. Today, high-quality prints of this artwork are often made available through the museum’s public domain initiatives, ensuring broad access to this powerful example of Gauguin's enduring legacy.