Seulah Lee"Tahitian Faces by Paul Gauguin"
This is a charcoal drawing on a laid paper by Paul Gauguin, the French artist, and is descripted faces. He drew a young Tahitian woman and her three different sides of face. First, its frontal face is in the center and is the most descripted part. Her eyes are blancked as a scrupture or a doll. Her lips are also closed that symbolize the strength of woman.
Strength of woman, which is the most meaningful to me, is expressed by using a gradation and a texture. There is a gradation on her forward face; her hair and her left side of her face. Gauguin also shaded her hair thikly but softly as real hair.
Not only the frontal face in the center, but also the background is a smooth texture making it to appear to flow along the paper. In my own thought, this is to symbolize a woman's secret part as her own emotion or her own feeling.
Gauguin's last facial drawing on the bottom, in addition, shaded as well as the frontal face; but not as much detailed as it. The eye is not even emphasized and is much smoothier than others faces. Its texture makes me think how woman covers her sadness and anger quietly. The closed lips are the balance which Gauguin used for showing a silence.
All three dimensions, therefore, are the emphasis that concludes three different characteristics of general women. According to this article, "masklike faces, likewise, are smudged by the sooty contour lines and shadows. This figure is not even close to the expression of beauty but is the symbol of manlike character" (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Gauguin, therefore, put his uniqueness on Tahitian woman's faces, expressing not only the strength of woman but the secret side of woman's feature. Shades, texture, lines, and sketch are symbolic rather than realistic. This drawing is, in conclusion, not the simple portrait but is an expression of human mind.
-Worked by.
Gauguin, Paul. Tahitian Faces. 1899. The Metropolitan Musement of Art, New York. 10 Oct. 2007. <http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=9&viewmode=0&item=1996.418>.
2 comments:
Really thoughtful, and very sharp in observation. Why did the author drew this drawing?
Paul Gauguin drew this drawing to remember a young Tahitian woman as I said above. He met this woman in his life and he thought that she is strong and hard. Ths is therefore expressed by three different facial dimensions.
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