\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 In 1891 Gauguin left France for the remote island of Tahiti where he hoped to rediscover the purity of primitive art.\par
\i Women of Tahiti\i0 was the first work that he painted after his arrival in the South Seas, where the artist was fascinated by the indolent charm of local beauties.\par
The large and severe forms of the composition are set against a backdrop that is r
educed to a few planes painted in deep and overlaid tones.\par
The vivid and brilliant colors of the two womenÆs dresses bring out their complexion and their firm and smooth skin and stand out strongly against the golden yellow of the sand.\par
The wom
an dressed in pink is represented in an almost frontal position but is looking to one side, as if her attention has been caught by something outside the frame of the painting.\par
The other girl is lying languidly on the sand and gazing downward, with a
sad and gloomy expression.\par
The highly stylized floral pattern on her red sarong is a good example of GauguinÆs decorative research.
