La Orana Napoleon

#93027     48” X 36”     oc

• Gauguin: “Ia Orana Maria” (1891)
• David: “Napoleon in His Studio”
• Cezanne: “Still Life with Peppermint Bottle and Blue Rug” (1893-95)

The scene is evidently in Tahiti, an island conquered by the French. Napoleon in his Emperor dress and tricorne stands amid the luxuriance of a flowering vegetation, in front of a table with food. Two native girls passing by, salute him with clasped hands.In fact, the table roaded with drink and fruits is a Cezanne’s still life and the background is of Gauguin’s “Ia Orana Maria” (Ave Maria).

In a letter to Daniel de Moufreid, March 1892, Gauguin wrote: “…..I have done one painting, a size 50 canvas. An angel with yellow wings point at two Tahitian women, Mary and Jesus are Tahitians as well–naked, dressed in the pareo, a sort of flowered cotton fabric attached as one pleases to one’s belt. Very dark mountain background and flowering trees–deep violet path and emerald-green foreground; on the left some bananas. I’m quite satisfied with it….”

Actually behind the two Tahitian worshippers, there is an angel standing among the flowers, rich and calm, looks like a flower himself.

The apparition of white men on the so-called “Primitive” or “Barbarian” tribes changed the world. They were received with curiosity and reverence at the beginning in general. Unfortunately many turned to be “Conquistadors” in various ways and different forms, even with the “Cross” on hand or on neck.

In this T. F. Chen’s version of Gauguin’s Tahiti, which role would be played by Napoleon who brought the Western food with him?

In this synthetic painting, Cezanne’s horizontal white table cloth reflects gracefully the Emperor’s white dress in vertical while its mountain-like shape corresponds marvelously the tricorne on Napoleon’s head and the dark mountain on the background.

– T. F. Chen