Not all of Gauguin’s depictions of Polynesian women were androgynous or masculinized. In fact, some of his depictions of women are highly feminized celebrations of fertility and womanhood that lack his common androgynous commentary. Later on in his life Gauguin admitted to his friend Daniel de Monfreid that he was starting to give up on his crusade to revolutionize the sexist society of France, where he had been sending his paintings of powerful androgynous Polynesian women. He said that “[he was] no longer a judge of Parisian taste� in an explanation of some of his more feminine portrayals of these same women (qtd. Mathews 229). In these paintings to which he refers, Nancy Mathews explains that “the female figures tend to be more conventionally feminine rather than androgynous and there are no overt references to rape or violence of any kind� (Mathews 229). Instead, Gauguin took advantage of the fruitful tropical setting of Polynesia to emphasize the femininity and fertility of the women who resided there.
The theme of fruitfulness is readily visible in the 1899 painting Two Tahitian Women. Here Gauguin displays two beautiful and extremely feminine women who contrast greatly to the androgynous women appearing in the majority of his Polynesian works. From the softer lines of their jawbones to the lack of definition in their shoulders and arms they are clearly meant to be soft and womanly. The women are mostly clothed except for their exposed bare breasts, to which they closely hold flowers and a plate of fruit. The colorful, tropical background adds to the overall theme of fertility and fruitfulness, all of which culminate in a celebration of the productivity of women in a feminine sense.
Another painting from the same year, Maternity, takes this theme of fertility even further by depicting three women taking care of an infant. They, too, are bare breasted and appear to each be nurturing the baby in different ways. One woman nurses the infant while the other two watch, one holding flowers and the other a basket of fruit. The painting is overloaded with fertile imagery and is a testament to motherhood and the maternal bond shared between women. Even though Gauguin created these works without the intention of displaying the power of women he seems to have captured a different side of female power that he had previously ignored. Instead of showing physical power through the bodies of the women, he shows the creative power that they possess through the theme of fertility and reproduction.