15. Paul Gauguin, French, 1848-1903. L'Appel (The Call), 1902. Oil on canvas, 130.2 x 90.2 cm. Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1943.392

In Paul Gauguin's L'Appel (The Call) of 1902, three women from Hiva Oa, a Marquesan island in the South Seas, are surrounded by varying shades of pink, pale orange, watermelon green, and lavender. One woman sits in the background with her back toward the viewer, while two standing figures dominate the foreground: one clothed in a red-trimmed pink dress and purple hood, and her half-dressed companion beckoning to someone outside the picture plane.

Gauguin's search for a primitive culture had led him to Tahiti in 1892. He returned to France the following year to exhibit his Tahitian paintings, but by 1895, disheartened by the art market and his personal life, he decided to reside in the South Seas permanently. From 1895 to 1901 Gauguin moved around the island of Tahiti in search of his paradise; in the paintings from this period he synthesized Tahitian and Western motifs. In 1901 he moved permanently to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas.

There are many theories about the meaning of L'Appel. Some believe the call refers to the Christian idea of the call to follow the path to salvation. Or perhaps the beckoning figure is a temptress calling to her lover. A third theory suggests that the half-nude woman represents death calling to Gauguin himself. The couple in the foreground appear in several of Gauguin's paintings and sculptures, and he described them as two figures who are reflecting on their life experiences. The purple in the hood worn by one of them was a symbolic color for Gauguin and appears in many of his works. In Tahiti, purple referred to purpura, a disease in which the skin appears purple because of hemorrhaging beneath. Gauguin suffered from purpura and between 1901 and 1903 was admitted to a hospital on several occasions. The two figures in L'Appel may be calling to Gauguin to reflect upon his life before death consumes him.

Whether one reads L'Appel as a call to salvation, the call of temptation, or a call to death, it seems plain that Gauguin has taken Marquesan images and traditions and infused them with meanings associated with Christian motifs. He created new levels of understanding and meaning in his paintings, the major contribution to the synthetist movement.

Vivian Kung and Patricia Richmond
Teacher Resource Center
Department of Education and Public Programs

© 1997 The Cleveland Museum of Art