Paul Gauguin Art Shrine

From Our Own Correspondent PAPEETE. March 1.

AMONG other means to recreate the long-dormant tourist trade of Tahiti, effort is now being made to direct attention of newcomers to places of local interest during their stay here.

In addition to its many historic sites, Tahiti abounds in the former homes of eminent creative artists whose shades now seem to hover around Tahiti’s beauty spots.

Into this category comes the outcast Paul Gauguin, whose genius immortalised the beauty of the land he loved so well.

Gauguin first visited Tahiti in 1891.

After a brief return to Paris, he came back to Tahiti in 1895. There, marrying a native woman, he purchased property in Punaauia District and established a home. He died in the Marquesas Islands in 1905. In the space of these ten brief years he created paintings and carvings which evoked the bewildered admiration, enthusiasm and censure of fellow craftsmen throughout the world.

On the verandah of his humble one storey abode in Punaauia, within sound of the roar of the Pacific and in view of the eternal hills, Gauguin, with savage joy created many of his epoch-making canvases. Among these was “D’ou venons nous? Que sommes-nous? Ou allons nous?”* into which he stated he had trajected the whole of his energy and passion.

LITTLE noticed now, by the wayfarer along the historic Broom Road, and long abandoned to neglect, is the Gauguin oroperty, restoration of which is reported to be about to be commenced.

It is hoped to make his old home in Punaauia a shrine where something of the inspiration of the artist may be re captured, and where art students may go to do homage to the genius of the man to whom they owe so much. ‘“Whence come we? What are we? Where are we going?”