Paintings in Tahiti

Gauguin's oil paintings from Tahiti have a greater emphasis on color. Just like Gelb's case, Gauguin's shift provided him with a new environment filled with much more natural lighting and vibrant color. Although there are realistic qualities, there is additional creative license Gauguin employs. For instance, in Merahi metua no Tehamana, the background of his 13-year-old wife's portrait is hieroglyph-type characters, which have a look similar to that of Egyptian characters. The female figure in the background left may be a goddess in Tahitian culture. The background appears to be Gauguin's attempt to highlight the 'primitiveness' or foreign aspect of Tahitian culture, despite these facets having no correlation to that of Tahitian culture.

Gauguin's purpose in creating Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? is to be read from right to left: from the sleeping infant—where we come from—to the standing figure in the middle—what we are—and ending at the left with the crouching old woman—where we are going.

Gauguin writes to his artist friend, Daniel de Monfried:

It is a canvas four meters fifty in width, by one meter seventy in height. The two upper corners are chrome yellow, with an inscription on the left and my name on the right, like a fresco whose corners are spoiled with age, and which is appliquéd upon a golden wall. To the right at the lower end, a sleeping child and three crouching women. Two figures dressed in purple confide their thoughts to one another. An enormous crouching figure, out of all proportion and intentionally so, raises its arms and stares in astonishment upon these two, who dare to think of their destiny. A figure in the center is picking fruit. Two cats near a child. A white goat. An idol, its arms mysteriously raised in a sort of rhythm, seems to indicate the Beyond. Then lastly, an old woman nearing death appears to accept everything, to resign herself to her thoughts. She completes the story! At her feet a strange white bird, holding a lizard in its claws, represents the futility of words….So I have finished a philosophical work on a theme comparable to that of the Gospel.

Gauguin's artistic expression, therefore, shifted exponentially when comparing his zincograph/woodcut prints and his paintings – a more spiritual and colorful take on art is observed due to the shift in his environment.