Te raau rahi (The Big Tree)

1891

“Everything in the landscape blinded and dazzled me,” wrote Paul Gauguin of his first months in Tahiti. Here, he showcased the island’s variety of bountiful fruit trees, including a thick-trunked, violet hotu at left; spindly mango and coconut trees; and three short banana plants with lush, splayed leaves. In the foreground, a man uses a stick to crack a coconut, and a family rests in the grass with a sleeping dog beside them.

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)

Date

1891

Medium

Oil on jute canvas

Dimensions

72.5 × 91.5 cm (28 9/16 × 36 in.); Framed: 96.6 × 115.6 × 11.5 cm (38 × 45 1/2 × 4 1/2 in.)

Origin

France

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Gift of Kate L. Brewster