Two Tahitians Gathering Fruit [verso]

Two Tahitians Gathering Fruit [verso] by Paul Gauguin, created between 1899 and 1900, is an evocative study rendered in graphite and blue colored pencil on wove paper. This piece belongs firmly to the final, highly productive years of the artist's career, specifically within the period spanning 1876 to 1900. The medium, characterized by economical use of line and color, reflects Gauguin's commitment to recording compositions while far removed from his native French culture in the South Pacific. Though cataloged with the classification of a Print, the designation of verso implies that this drawing is likely a preparatory sketch or study executed on the reverse side of another sheet, perhaps related to a larger printmaking or painting project.

Gauguin uses simple, yet robust, lines of graphite to define the stylized forms of the two women standing amidst tropical foliage. The figures are captured in the routine act of gathering fruit, a subject common in the artist’s oeuvre that emphasized the harmonious relationship between the indigenous people and nature. The introduction of blue colored pencil is sparing, hinting at areas of shadow or indicating potential color blocking intended for the final work, thereby demonstrating the artist's compositional process. This subject matter—the daily life of Tahitians—was central to Gauguin’s symbolic artistic project during his extended stays in the region, where he sought to capture an elemental purity absent from modern European society.

As a key example of Gauguin's preparatory draftsmen skills, this work provides crucial insight into his working methodology during the Post-Impressionist era. The classification connecting it to "prints" reinforces its relationship to the artist's extensive graphic output, including the celebrated woodcuts and lithographs executed around the turn of the century. Such preparatory works, whether drawings or subsequent Two Tahitians Gathering Fruit [verso] derived from them, form an important part of the artistic record of the French symbolist movement. This study currently resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, where it is preserved as a valuable resource for scholarly research and public viewing.