Spirit of the Dead Watching
Item
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Title
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Spirit of the Dead Watching
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Description
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Spirit of the Dead Watching is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.
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Date
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1892
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Artsist
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Gauguin, Paul
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Material
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Oil on canvas
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Measurements
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116.05 cm × 134.62 cm (45.6 inches × 53 inches)
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Analysis
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Sexualizes and exoticizes a young Tahitian girl through a colonial gaze:
(19th Century) In Spirit of the Dead Watching, Gauguin shows a young Tahitian girl through the perspective of the male gaze and colonial fantasy. Her vulnerable, reclining pose draws the viewer’s attention, and the exotic setting supports Western ideas of the “other” as mysterious and available. Instead of showing her as a complete individual, the painting turns her body and fear into objects for others to look at and consume. Gauguin’s work not only sexualizes the subject but also shows how colonial power and the male gaze work together to create racial and gender differences.
