Nevermore (O Taiti)

The most important paintings executed during Gauguin’s second stay in Tahiti are the Nevermore, The White Horse, and Two Tahitian Women. “Nevermore” is the refrain of The Raven, a famous poem published in 1875 by Edgar Allan Poe.

Nevermore is one of Gauguin’s monumental nude paintings. It reflects the depression by which the painter was overcome in 1897 which led to his attempted suicide. This work is a free adaptation of Manet’s Olympia, which Gauguin had copied before going to Tahiti in 1891. It attempts to suggest the superstitious dread of the Tahitian woman who lies alone in the foreground. Although Gauguin denied any association with Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, the links are too obvious to be overlooked, particularly since it would have been well-known in the literary circles within which Gauguin moved, and had been illustrated in translation by Manet.