Gauguin most clearly suggests an enhancement of Tahiti by the Christian missionaries in his harmonious masterpiece Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, a painting that strikingly conflicts with Gauguin’s written commentary on Christianity in Tahiti The painting is described by Stephen F. Eisenman in his book Gauguin’s Skirt as being “a work which recast Genesis” (Eisenman 15) . Similarly, Amishai-Maisels comments on the Christian symbolism of this piece, asserting that it represents the “three stages of the Biblical Fall.” She dissects the painting in this context, describing each section in terms of its relation to the Biblical story of man’s fall from grace:
On the right is the relaxed pre-Fall state, the beginning of life in Paradise. In the center is the Fall, ‘the man of instinct asks himself what all this means,’ plucks and eats the fruit. On the left is the post-Fall state, which includes religion (the idol) and death (the old woman) (Amishai-Maisels 228-229).
Amishai-Maisels recognizes the obvious Christian symbolism in this painting – referencing the Biblical story of Adam and Eve when she talks about “the Fall” – yet still notes the Tahitian context of the painting when she comments on the religion represented by the Tahitian idol. The painting – a panorama portraying the different stages of life – is stitched together in a way that suggests many different sketches rather than a single scene. In the right of the mural is the representation of birth – Where Do We Come From? – in the women gathered around the little baby. As we move toward the center of the painting – What Are We? – we encounter the coming-of-age and the questioning of one’s purpose. The two women in pink discuss life and the man with arms extended upward in the very center is picking a piece of fruit, fruit that could represent either life or death. As we move toward the left of the picture the tone becomes more somber as the subject of death enters the painting – Where Are We Going? However, it is not just death that Gauguin addresses, but what comes after death. In this question, Gauguin blends the tenants of Christianity with the beliefs of the native Tahitian religion, both of which believe in a life after physical death. Thus, although Gauguin lamented the Christian belief system as being imposed upon the Tahitians, he asserts in Where Are We Going? that it was natural for the Tahitians to look toward Christianity in the hope of an afterlife. In this way, Gauguin contradicts his words in his letters and Noa Noa by asserting that this hope granted to the native Tahitians by the Christian missionaries was an enhancement to the life the Tahitians lived before the arrival of the missionaries, and painted the scene accordingly. It is in this painting that we see the completion of Gauguin’s progression from depicting an integration of Christianity in Tahiti to painting a Tahitian landscape enhanced by the presence of Christian missionaries, showing his belief that Christianity enhanced rather than detracted from the Tahitian culture.