Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? is one of Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings. Gauguin inscribed this title - in French - in the upper left corner: D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous; in the upper right corner he signed and dated the painting: P. Gauguin / 1897(!). Created in Tahiti, it is currently housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Gauguin left for Tahiti in 1891, looking f... more

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? is one of Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings. Gauguin inscribed this title - in French - in the upper left corner: D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous; in the upper right corner he signed and dated the painting: P. Gauguin / 1897(!). Created in Tahiti, it is currently housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Gauguin left for Tahiti in 1891, looking for a society more elemental and simplistic than that of his native France. In addition to several other paintings that he created which express a highly individualistic mythology, he began this painting in 1897 and finished it by 1898, considering it a masterpiece and grand culmination of his thoughts. The curators of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where the painting now resides, are continuously updating their record of the painting's ownership history, suggesting that their list is not comprehensive. In any case, in 1898, Gauguin sent the... less