The Call
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
unframed: 131.3 × 89.5 cm · framed: 160.5 × 119 × 9.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the Hanna Fund
Accession Number
1943.392
Tags
male
About this artwork
Painted on a remote island in Polynesia a year before the artist's death, The Call belongs to a series of late works that explore the mysteries of life and death. Two women stand with bare feet, as if on sacred ground. One woman gestures to someone outside the picture, perhaps responding to a "call" from fate or destiny. Gauguin realized his ambition of painting from memory and the imagination through such mysterious, dreamlike images.