The Devil Speaks (Mahna No Varua Ino) (recto); Women Washing Clothes (verso)
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
1893–1894
- Medium
- woodcut
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 20.5 x 32.1 cm (8 1/16 x 12 5/8 in.); Image: 20.3 x 31.9 cm (8 x 12 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- France, late 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
- Credit line
- The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
In 1893, Paul Gauguin returned to Paris from time spent in Tahiti. He began to conceive of a book that would describe his life outside Europe and provide context for the avant-garde works he created while away. This print is one of a series of ten intended to illustrate this book, which Gauguin titled Noa Noa. He carved each image roughly into a woodblock and printed them himself, giving the prints a rough quality that he hoped would enhance their subject matter. Because of this process, combined with the artist's practice of varying his inks and papers while working, prints such as this one are virtually unique.
