After his first trip to Tahiti, and as we saw with the Volpini suite in the previous room, Gauguin continued to experiment and innovate with printmaking. In front of you are two different impressions Noa Noa (Fragrant scent) from the suite of woodblock prints. In the case below is the original woodblock (or matrix) used to create the prints. If you look closely, you will see that it is composed of very fine lines, possibly made with a needle-like burin, as with the wavy lines that make up the lower part of the block. There are also deeper cuts, made with a gouge, mainly in the upper half. Gauguin used gritty sandpaper on this woodblock to create the fine textures of the final print, which we see in the neck of the dog in the foreground. The flat areas of the woodblock, where the surface has not been cut or sanded, received ink for the impression of the print.
The other woodcuts from the Noa Noa suite, the works along this wall, were made by Gauguin in Paris over the winter of 1893–94 following his return from Tahiti. With the assistance of his friend the writer Charles Morice, Gauguin intended to publish a semi-fictionalised account of his life in the Pacific and the prints were intended to illustrate the book. Each of the woodcuts translate elements of the paintings Gauguin produced in Tahiti, but unlike the bold and colourful paintings, the Noa Noa series of prints convey a dark, mythological character to the island. Many of the prints depict nighttime scenes, spirits and creation stories. But these images bear no clear relation to Gauguin’s written account of his life in Noa Noa, thus resist easy interpretation.
What is remarkable about this series of prints is how Gauguin tested the boundaries of printmaking. He continuously experimented with techniques that captured the qualities he wanted to convey to his European audience: that Tahiti was an exotic, mysterious paradise. Take, for example, the Noa Noa print on the left-hand side: Gauguin printed the first impression in a yellow ink and, on top of this, a second impression with black ink. These two prints are misaligned by about 5 millimetres as though the yellow impression is a faint shadow. Gauguin has also done this in Manao tupapau (The spirits of the dead are watching) but the two impressions are so close that the print has a hazy effect.
If we consider the two impressions of Nave Nave Fenua (Delightful land), we see further examples of Gauguin’s innovations. For the example on pink-toned paper, Gauguin printed it from the woodblock using only the pressure of his palms: sometimes marks from his fingernails are visible. In the second impression, on a cream-coloured paper, Gauguin has now carved a decorative border down the left-hand side and a title across the top of the work. Other parts of the prints have been added to or refined, such as the parallel carved lines to the left of the woman’s leg. He often changed papers, ink colours, and applied differing pressure in the printing process. None of the impressions of the Noa Noa series printed by Gauguin are exactly alike.
