The Day of the Godis one of the most powerful and symbolic paintings of Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian period. The work depicts a ritual scene set on a beach, dominated by a carved divine figure placed on a pedestal at the centre of the composition. Around the statue, female figures move in ritual poses, while in the foreground three reclining bodies evoke, through their positions, the cycle of life: birth, maturity and death.
Gauguin uses intense colours and flat surfaces to create an atmosphere of suspended sacredness, almost outside time. Sea and sand become abstract fields of colour that amplify the sense of mystery and spirituality. The artist does not describe a real Polynesian ritual, but imagines a mythical, primordial world in which man, divinity and nature coexist in balance. The Day of the God thus becomes a hymn to the primordial force and the sacred that pervades life.
Unique quality material
Print on handmade Amalfi paper Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in) With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges Frame: light brown beech wood and wood pulp, handmade
How an Amalfi art print is made, what the frame is like, what museum glass is, how long shipping takes, and how returns work: we’ve gathered all the answers on a single page.
