In the Waves, 1889
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903)

Gauguin painted this canvas in April 1889 at Pont-Aven, a small village in northwest France. He left Paris for this remote, rugged area along the Atlantic coast in hopes of finding a more primitive, natural life. The painting shows a nude woman, one hand raised to her mouth, throwing herself into the sea. This mysterious image has been interpreted as symbolic of the soul abandoning itself to nature. Intensifying the painting's emotional impact, the simplified lines and colors, especially the contrasting green and orange, seem invented rather than observed from life. In 1889 this painting appeared in an exhibition at the Café Volpini in Paris, considered to be the first exhibition of the Symbolists—a group of artists whose works explored dreams, fantasy, and the realm of the imagination.