Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal
    Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal
    Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal

    By Paul Gauguin

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Paul Gauguin fled what he called "filthy Europe" in 1891 to what he hoped would be an unspoiled paradise, Tahiti. He painted 66 magnificent can vases during the first two years he spent there and kept notes from which he later wrote Noa Noa — a journal recording his thoughts and impressions of that time.
    Noa Noa — the most widely known of Gauguin's writings — is reproduced here from a rare early edition (1919), in a lucid translation capturing the artist's unpretentious style. Page after page reveals Gauguin's keen observations of Tahiti and its people, and his passionate struggle to achieve the inner harmony he expressed so profoundly on canvas. Gauguin's prose is as seductive as his paintings, filled with descriptions of warm seas, hidden lagoons, lush green forests, and beautiful Maori women.
    The journal is captivating reading, offering a compelling autobiographical fragment of the soul of a genius and a rare glimpse of Oceanian culture. The brief periods of happiness Gauguin found among the Tahitians are eloquently expressed in his narrative. We understand the motives that drove him and gain a deeper appreciation of his art.
    Today the manuscript provides unparalleled insight into Gauguin's thoughts as he strove to achieve spiritual peace, and into the wellsprings of a singular artistic style which changed the course of modern art. This wonderfully affordable edition — enhanced by 24 of Gauguin's South Seas drawings — makes a unique and passionate testament accessible to all art lovers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateJun 14, 2012
    ISBN9780486139173
    Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal

    Related to Noa Noa

    Titles in the series (100)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Art For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Muse

      Mar 1, 2020

      Muse
      1 min read

    • Article

      Ode to Gray

      Aug 21, 2018

      Ode to Gray
      5 min read

    • Article

      Alice Neel: How to Persevere and Live the Artist’s Life

      Mar 8, 2017

      “Alice loved a wretch. She loved the wretch in the hero and the hero in the wretch. She saw that in all of us, I think.” –Ginny Neel “The self, we have it like an albatross around the neck.” –Alice Neel In the winter of 1931, a 30-year-old painter

      10 min read

    • Article

      Hockney: The Early Years

      Oct 27, 2023

      Hockney: The Early Years
      3 min read

    • Article

      Jo Hopper, Woman in the Sun

      Feb 26, 2018

      Jo Hopper, Woman in the Sun
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Myth Of Picasso

      Oct 28, 2019

      The Myth Of Picasso
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Fantastical Little Dyer

      Mar 4, 2019

      OF THE THREE GREAT ARTISTS who dominated Venetian painting for much of the 16th century, Tintoretto was the wildest and most avant-garde. In 1568, the Tuscan artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, who had met Tintoretto in Venice and liked him, report

      8 min read

    • Article

      Studio

      Apr 27, 2023

      THE MOST VISIBLE CARPACCIO IN VENICE TODAY IS the one no one mentioned. Crossing the Accademia bridge in the direction of San Marco, one passes the church of San Vidal on the left, at the southwestern corner of Campo Santo Stefano [1]. The church is

      5 min read

    • Article

      Make A Spectacle Of Oneself

      Oct 27, 2022

      AWARE THAT QUEEN Elizabeth I said to Robert Cecil, a much greater man than I, “Little man, little man: must is not a word to be used to princes,” I am hesitant to address my new Sovereign Lord with the word “must”. But the Coronation must not be a se

      3 min read

    • Article

      To Make Art Is To Be Human

      Oct 13, 2021

      IN 1950, Ernst Gombrich published The Story of Art. The book was an instant bestseller and was the first to show that there was, indeed, such a thing as a story of art, that artists and movements existed not in isolated moments of time, but as part o

      7 min read

    • Article

      An Autumn Choice

      Sep 28, 2022

      An Autumn Choice
      5 min read

    • Article

      Labour Of Love

      Apr 6, 2023

      Labour Of Love
      10 min read

    • Article

      Turning Heads

      Jun 17, 2022

      Turning Heads
      4 min read

    • Article

      Studio

      Apr 1, 2022

      Studio
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Final Frontier

      Dec 23, 2020

      CATHOLICS ARE PECULIARLY morbid. That, at any rate, struck me as the most plausible explanation. It must have been 15 years ago, and I was with a group of Englishspeaking aficionados learning handson capework in the breeders’ practice rings around Sa

      3 min read

    • Article

      Music Richard Osborne

      Dec 15, 2021

      You need to be a person of some consequence to be given a state funeral on Christmas Eve, but that is what was granted the 86-year-old Camille Saint-Saëns, elder statesman of French music a century ago, after his death in December 1921. He had alread

      3 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Mar 18, 2021

      Anniversaries
      4 min read

    • Article

      Francis Spufford Vividly Recreates an 18th-Century New York in ‘Golden Hill’

      Jul 26, 2018

      Dear Reader, envision that Village which grew upon the southern strand of that isle of Manhattoes: a Lenape settlement purchased for 60 guilders and named for Amsterdam, later to be acquired by gunships of King James, and her wooden-legged governor r

      7 min read

    • Article

      From Russia, With Love

      Sep 14, 2022

      From Russia, With Love
      5 min read

    • Article

      When Eden Rocked

      Jun 7, 2019

      When Eden Rocked
      11 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Satire

      Jan 26, 2023

      THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE to be seen as devotees of the Muses are having a fine old time squealing about the Proletcult-style despoliation of the arts in Britain, with public funding being withdrawn by a Visigothic Arts Council from their frivolous pleasu

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Man Of La Mancha

      May 6, 2021

      The Man Of La Mancha
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Noa Noa

    4/5

    28 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Gauguin was unable to publish this memoir of his two years in Tahiti as he wanted with his woodcuts and without censorship in 1900 because of the prudishness of the day. Today it seems rather mild. He was on a quest for a purity and escape that he never quite found. He documents his perception of the damage done by Europeans to the Tahitian culture and his understanding of their theology as conveyed to him by his young native bride. It's an interesting look at a vanished world the price imperialism imposed. His accompanying art is delightful.

    Book preview

    Noa Noa - Paul Gauguin

    DOVER BOOKS ON FINE ART

    BEARDSLEY’S LE MORTE DARTHUR: SELECTED ILLUSTRATIONS, AUBREY BEARDSLEY. (0-486-41795-6)

    WILLIAM BLAKE’S DIVINE COMEDY ILLUSTRATIONS: 102 FULL-COLOR PLATES, WILLIAM BLAKE. (0-486-46429-6)

    BLAKE’S WATER-COLOURS FOR THE POEMS OF THOMAS GRAY: WITH COMPLETE TEXTS, WILLIAM BLAKE. (0-486-40944-9)

    CHAGALL DRAWINGS: 43 WORKS, MARC CHAGALL. (0-486-41222-9)

    DEGAS DRAWINGS OF DANCERS, EDGAR DEGAS. (O-486-40698-9)

    AN EDWARDIAN BESTIARY: 87 COLOR PLATES BY MAURICE & EDWARD J. DETMOLD, MAURICE DETMOLD AND EDWARD J. DETMOLD. EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JEFF A. MENGES. (0-486-46877-1)

    THE DORÉ BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS, GUSTAVE DORÉ. (0-486-23004-X)

    THE DORÉ GALLERY: His 120 GREATEST ILLUSTRATIONS, GUSTAVE DORÉ. EDITED BY CAROL BELANGER GRAFTON. (O-486-4O16O-X)

    KIOWA AND PUEBLO ART: WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS BY NATIVE AMERICAN ARTISTS, DOVER. (0-486-46441-5)

    THE COMPLETE ENGRAVINGS, ETCHINGS AND DRYPOINTS OF ALBRECHT DÜRER, ALBRECHT DOVER. (0-486-22851-7)

    GREAT SELF-PORTRAITS, EDITED BY CAROL BELANGER GRAFTON. (O-486-42168-6)

    GREAT ANIMAL DRAWINGS AND PRINTS, EDITED BY CAROL BELANGER GRAFTON. (O-486-44830-4)

    GREAT DRAWINGS OF WOMEN: FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, SELECTED BY CAROL BELANGER GRAFTON. (0-486-44606-9)

    GREAT DRAWINGS OF NUDES: 45 WORKS, EDITED BY CAROL BELANGER GRAFTON. (0-486-42766-8)

    HOLBEIN PORTRAIT DRAWINGS, HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER. (0-486-24937-9)

    GRAPHIC WORKS OF MAX KLINGER, MAX KLINGER. (0-486-23437-I)

    NAN. (0-486-46442-3)

    LEONARDO’S ANATOMICAL DRAWINGS, LEONARDO DA VINCI. (0-486-43862-7)

    LEONARDO ON ART AND THE ARTIST, LEONARDO DA VINCI. (O-4H6-42166-X)

    LEONARDO DRAWINGS, LEONARDO DA VINCI. (0-486-23951-9)

    THE SUN, THE IDEA & STORY WITHOUT WORDS: THREE GRAPHIC NOVELS, FRANS MASEREEL. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID A. BERONA. (O-486-47169-1)

    POE ILLUSTRATED, SELECTED AND EDITED BY JEFF A. MENGES. (O-486-45746-X)

    VISIONS OF CAMELOT: GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS OF KING ARTHUR AND His COURT, SELECTED AND EDITED BY JEFF A. MENGES. (O-486-46816-X)

    ONCE UPON A TIME . . . A TREASURY OF CLASSIC FAIRY TALE ILLUSTRATIONS, SELECTED AND EDITED BY JEFF A. MENGES. (0-486-46830-5)

    MICHELANGELO LIFE DRAWINGS, MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. (0-486-23876-8)

    MIRÓ LITHOGRAPHS, JOAN MIRÓ. (0-486-24437-7)

    PICASSO LINE DRAWINGS AND PRINTS, PABLO PICASSO. (0-486-24196-3)

    WILLY POGÁNY REDISCOVERED, WILLY POGÁNY. SELECTED AND EDITED BY JEFF A. MENGES. (O-486-47046-6)

    RACKHAM’S COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS FOR WAGNER’S RING, ARTHUR RACKHAM. (0-486-23779-6)

    SEE EVERY DOVER BOOK IN PRINT AT WWW.DOVERPUBLICATIONS.COM

    Chats without words.

    Copyright © 1985 by Dover Publications. Inc. All rights reserved.

    This Dover edition, first published in 1985, is an unabridged republication of the work first published by Nicholas L. Brown. New York. in 1919, under the title Noa Noa. this edition also contains new illustrations. which were first published in The Intimate Journals of Paul Gauguin by William Heinemann. Ltd., London, in 1923. The translations of the artist’s inscriptions on these illustrations are new. prepared especially for this Dover edition.

    Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

    Gauguin. Paul, 1848-1903

    Noa Noa : the Tahitian journal.

    Translated from the French.

    Reprint. Originally published: New York : N.L. Brown. 1920, c1919.

    I. Gauguin. Paul, 1848-1903. 2. Painters—France—Biography. 3. Tahiti. I. Title.

    ND553.G27A2 1985 759.4 [B] 84-21058

    9780486139173

    Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

    24859314

    www.doverpublications.com

    Table of Contents

    DOVER BOOKS ON FINE ART

    Title Page

    Copyright Page

    Dites, qu’avez-vous vu?

    Dites, qu’avez-vous vu?

    CHARLES BAUDELAIRE.

    On the eighth of June, during the night, after a sixty-three days’ voyage, sixty-three days of feverish expectancy, we perceived strange fires, moving in zigzags on the sea. From the somber sky a black cone with jagged indentions became disengaged.

    We turned Morea and had Tahiti before us.

    Several hours later dawn appeared, and we gently approached the reefs, entered the channel, and anchored without accidents in the roadstead.

    The first view of this part of the island discloses nothing very extraordinary; nothing, for instance, that could be compared with the magnificent bay of Rio de Janeiro.

    It is the summit of a mountain submerged at the time of one of the ancient deluges. Only the very point rose above the waters. A family fled thither and founded a new race—and then the corals climbed up along it, surrounding the peak, and in the course of centuries builded a new land. It is still extending, but retains its original character of solitude and isolation, which is only accentuated by the immense expanse of the ocean.

    Toward ten o’clock I made my formal call on the governor, the negro Lacascade, who received me as though I had been an important personage.

    I owed this distinction to the mission with which the French government—I do not know why—had entrusted me. It was an artistic mission, it is true. But in the view of the negro, however, this word was only an official synonym for espionage, and I tried in vain to undeceive him. Every one about him shared this belief, and when I said that I was receiving no pay for my mission no one would believe me.

    Life at Papeete soon became a burden.

    It was Europe—the Europe which I had thought to shake off—and that under the aggravating circumstances of colonial snobbism, and the imitation, grotesque even to the point of caricature, of our customs, fashions, vices, and absurdities of civilization.

    Was I to have made this far journey, only to find the very thing which I had fled?

    Nevertheless, there was a public event which interested me.

    At the time King Pomare was mortally ill, and the end was daily expected.

    Little by little the city had assumed a singular aspect.

    All the Europeans, merchants, functionaries, officers, and soldiers, laughed and sang on the streets as usual, while the natives with grave mien and lowered voice held converse among themselves in the neighborhood of the palace. In the roadstead there was an abnormal movement of orange sails on the blue sea, and often the line of reefs shone in a sudden silvery gleam under the sun. The natives of neighboring islands were hastening hither to attend at the last moments of their king, and at the definite taking possession of their empire by France.

    By signs from above they had had report of this, for whenever a king was about to die the mountains in certain places became covered with dark spots at the setting of the sun.

    The king died, and lay in state in the palace in the uniform of an admiral.

    There I saw the queen, Maraü—such was her name—decorating the royal hall with flowers and materials. When the director of public works asked my advice about the artistic arrangements of the funeral, I pointed out the queen to him. With the beautiful instinct of her race she dispersed grace everywhere about her, and made everything she touched a work of art.

    I understood her only imperfectly at this first meeting. Both the human beings and the objects were so different from those I had desired, that I was disappointed.

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1