Description
La Siesta is a painting painted during Gauguin's first extended trip to the island of Tahiti.
The image is a representation of a group of Tahitian women chatting in the cool shade of a veranda during the hot afternoon sun. One of the women is ironing.
Although the subject was an aspect of Tahitian daily life, Gauguin worked on the canvas over a long period, making several changes: the shopping bag in the foreground, for example, was previously a dog. The dog was in the position now occupied by the basket in the lower right. Also the skirt of the woman in the foreground was originally bright red, and the woman sitting on the left edge of the porch was formerly positioned further to the left.
The grace and communal ease of Tahitian women greatly impressed Gauguin and this was embodied in La Siesta: the women rest quietly on a roofed terrace and the grass shaded during the heat of the day. One of them irons while the others do nothing.
They are all native women, but their clothing is European, dressed in colorful patterned fabrics, like in a colonial-era fashion magazine. The figure in the foreground, so casual in its pose, seems particularly reminiscent of such magazines.
Although undated, the painting was probably painted around 1891-92, when Gauguin was taking an active interest in his everyday surroundings. The spatial composition of this painting, using the posts and terrace boards drawn in perspective, is especially defined.
Gauguin continued to push the boundaries of art throughout his life, contributing to the Symbolist movement and experimenting with color in unique ways that set him apart from his contemporary artists.