In the Waves (Dans les Vagues)
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
unframed: 92.5 × 72.4 cm · framed: 123.8 × 106 × 7 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Powell Jones
Accession Number
1978.63
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Painted at Pont-Aven in northwest France, this depiction of a nude figure throwing herself into the sea suggests a metaphor for a modern European woman forsaking civilization and abandoning herself to her natural, primitive instincts. The simplified lines and exaggerated colors, especially the contrasting green and orange, seem invented rather than observed from life. Exhibiting the painting at the Café Volpini in Paris in 1889, Gauguin established himself as a leader of the Symbolist movement i...