Alone 1893

Paul Gauguin made this painting, Alone, while living in Tahiti where he hoped to escape European civilization. His vision of Tahiti was filtered through a colonial lens, one which romanticized the island while overlooking the complexities of Tahitian life. The figure in the painting, a young Tahitian woman, is depicted in a moment of quiet contemplation, she is seemingly lost in her own thoughts. Gauguin once said his figures possess “a pensive sadness," and here we see that melancholy realized in her downturned gaze and closed-off posture. She embodies the exoticism Western viewers sought in images of the Pacific, where indigenous people were presented as untouched by modernity. Alone is a product of its time, reflecting both Gauguin’s personal search for authenticity and the broader cultural fantasies of colonial societies. It invites us to reflect on the narratives we construct about other cultures, and how these stories often obscure the individual experiences of those they claim to represent.