What News

What News was painted eleven years before Gauguin's death. This post-impressionistic oil painting is from his first Tahiti period. It shows us two young French Polynesian women sitting on the ground in what seems to be uncomfortable positions. One of them is looking down and the other's eyes look to the side. The women look thoughtful and sullen like they heard some sad news. Gauguin has done the brushwork with just enough depth to show us the main shades, shapes, and highlights of both models' skin and the general directions of their hair and clothes, but still rough enough to leave room for imagination. We can see cloisonnist style in the way he uses the contours to bring focus on the women even more. The native clothes and the background are left relatively simplistic, revealing some of his skills in genre painting.