All About Eve:
Gauguin's Journey with Eve from Europe to Tahiti
Alexis Tucker, Princeton Class of 2008
"And the Eve of this Paradise became more and more docile, more loving. I was permeated with her fragrance- noa noa. She came into my life at the perfect hour. Earlier, I might, perhaps, not have understood her, and later it would have been too late. To-day I understand how much I love her, and through her I enter into mysteries which hitherto remained inaccessible to me. But, for the moment, my intelligence does not yet reason out my discoveries; I do not classify them in my memory. It is to my emotion that Tehura confides all this that she tells me. It is in my emotions and impressions that I shall later find her words inscribed. By the daily telling of her life she leads me, more surely than it could have been done by any other way, to a full understanding of her race."
In this passage from Noa Noa, Paul Gauguin describes his young wife, Tehura, as his own personal Eve: docile and loving while exposing him to a world of mysteries previously inaccessible to him. Although this description is both passionate and touching, the characteristics that he uses certainly do not match the Biblical image of Eve as a temptress and the harbinger of original sin. So, is Gauguin actually insulting his bride by likening her to the first lady of temptation? Not at all, for through his journey to find Paradise, Gauguin reinvented Eves role from being the original seductress of Eden to becoming the mother of all life, and a symbol of the pure and primitive world that he seeks. By eliminating religious implications tied to Eves character, he redefines her to be his spiritual guide through primitivism. Through his art, Gauguin gave Eve a new sense of dignity that she had been stripped of by Judeo-Christian dogma. Indeed, in a letter to symbolist writer Auguste Strindberg Gauguin wrote: The Eve of your civilized imagination makes you and almost all of us misogynists the Eve of primitive times who, in my studio, startles you now, may one day smile on you less bitterly (qtd Walther 73-4). For Gauguin, Eve represents a more innocent time before modern civilization and guilt, therefore, it is only through her that he can truly understand and immerse himself in the primitive world that he wanted to escape. As Gauguin moved further away from Europe and European standards, his representation of Eve matures from a cowering, shameful woman as depicted in Judeo-Christian culture into a strong, statuesque idol who becomes his guide into his ideal version of Eden in Tahiti: the innocence and beauty of a new beginning, and the birthplace of humanity that he found in Polynesia.
The Exhibit
Pre-Tahiti: Eve in BrittanyBack to Paris
First Stay in Tahiti: Paradise on Earth
Second Stay in Tahiti: Where Are We Going?
Conclusion
Works Cited
About the Author
The Gallery
Noa Noa: The Travel Journal of Paul GauguinTehura: A Living Eve
Haere Pape: A Personal Reflection
Biblical Themes in Gauguin's Portrayal of Eden
The Artist's Perspective: The Final Word
