How Death Inspired a Masterpiece: Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

In his unpublished manuscript, Diverses choses, written between 1896 and January 1898, Gauguin had a vision: To paint a monumental work of art the likes of which no one had ever seen. He envisioned its size, its overall appearance and its subject, wising to create a fantastical paradise no doubt inspired by the tropical environment in which he lived. His initial goal was to challenge established notions of art by communicating his thoughts in pictorial form through the formal language of color. Yet this did not work out as Gauguin had initially planned. In April of 1897, he was struck by a tragedy too painful to comprehend and by the end of the year, he survived an attempt to take his own life. What ensued was an attack on the very foundation of the Christian establishment in Diverses choses, which drastically transformed his initial vision followed by an epiphany-like moment of creative inspiration and his painting of Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? in late 1897 and early 1898. Through the development of his writing between 1896 and 1898 as well as the course of events as described in his letters, it is possible to trace the genesis of Gauguin’s painting from an idea to reality, which demonstrates the importance of an artist’s writing on his approach to image making, and ultimately, our understanding of this enigmatic work of art.