Why it matters
Painted in Tahiti, Gauguin's great frieze asks three questions in its title and is considered 'a philosophical work comparable to the themes of the Gospels'. Its enigmatic subject has been linked to personal conflicts he was going through at the time.
Did you know?
- The three questions echo a catechism Gauguin learned as a schoolboy from the Bishop of Orléans.
- It was painted in 1897–1898.
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acquired it on 16 April 1936.
Based on the Wikipedia article Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (CC BY-SA 4.0).
