Gauguin’s 1898 painting Te Pape Nave Nave (Delectable waters) is an enigmatic work that combines creation stories from across the Pacific with images from European and Southeast Asian cultures. Scanning across the canvas from left to right, we find a tall peacock-like bird, standing and seated female figures, a hooded woman accompanied by a child and two dogs, a large stone sculpture of the Polynesian moon goddess Hina that resembles Hindu statues, and a second pair of female figures who look out at the viewer. The reflective water of a small creek passes diagonally in the lower half of the composition, dividing the rich orange earth of the foreground from the darker, more mysterious background. Beyond the dark silhouette of trees, a luminous yellow sky with deep blue clouds enhances the mystical atmosphere of Gauguin’s painting.
The standing woman, who seems to attempt to cover her genitals with a small piece of white cloth, is often interpreted as a fallen Eve. As if to emphasis her awkwardness, Gauguin made the figure’s head disproportionately small and, by her sideward glance, appear hesitant. Indeed the gazes of the figures—especially the seated women who seem to variously engage the viewer or question our intrusion into the scene—is part of what make the painting so intriguing.
From the time of his arrival in French Polynesia, Gauguin used Tahitian language titles for his work in a conscious effort to make his work appear more exotic for his European audience. Te Pape Nave Nave (Delectable waters) exemplifies the layered sources, cultural references, iconography and settings that Gauguin employed to evoke traditional life despite the realities of European colonisation.
This work is one of a group of paintings shown in Paris in 1898, alongside Gauguin’s 1897–98 masterpiece Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? (now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The paintings were intended to form a large frieze-like ensemble that surrounded the viewer.
