Eve ['The Nightmare'] (recto); Eve ['The Nightmare'] (verso)

about 1899–1900

Medium

Black printer's ink, ochre ink, and liquid solvent (recto); graphite and blue crayon pencil with traces of a diluted oil medium (verso), on wove paper

Dimensions

64.2 × 48.9 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-196829

>If my work must be limited to watercolor, pastel, or anything else all the spirit goes out of it ... I have at this moment a series of experimental drawings that I'm fairly pleased with. I'm sending you a small specimen; it's like an impression and yet it isn't. Thick ink replaces pencil, that's all... > >--Paul Gauguin Near the end of his life in isolated French Polynesia, Gauguin invented his own technique to produce this unique, double-sided image. Both sides depict a young Tahitian woman as Eve in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by the Devil as a snake, a dark figure on horseback, and a fallen Adam. One side of the drawing consists of fine blue and black lines. Those markings are not only flipped or mirrored on the other side, but appear thicker and darker amid murky patches of black and ocher ink. This more colorful and detailed side was probably what Gauguin intended viewers to see. On its surface, Gauguin's experimental drawing looks primitive and casually made. However, its rough appearance belies a very sophisticated work, with nuanced mark-making and carefully aligned applications of color. The closest analogy to Gauguin's process might be the act of wri…