Composition with Figures and a Horse

Created in 1902, just a year before Gauguin's death in the Marquesas Islands, this work reflects the artist's final period in French Polynesia. By this time, Gauguin had been living in the South Pacific for nearly a decade, having permanently left France in 1895 after a brief return. His health was deteriorating—he suffered from syphilis, leg infections, and the effects of a heart condition—yet he continued to produce vivid, symbolically charged works that synthesized his observations of Tahitian life with his Post-Impressionist and Symbolist sensibilities.

The inclusion of both human figures and a horse is intriguing within Gauguin's late work. Horses appear occasionally in his Tahitian paintings, often as remnants of European presence or as symbolic elements bridging the natural and spiritual worlds. In works like 'Mahana no atua (Day of the God)' from 1894, Gauguin demonstrated his mature style: bold, flat areas of color, figures arranged in decorative compositions, and themes exploring the relationship between people, nature, and the sacred. This 1902 composition likely continues these preoccupations, using the Synthetist techniques—simplified forms, strong outlines, and expressive color—that Gauguin had developed in Brittany and perfected in the tropics. The painting represents the culmination of his lifelong quest to escape Western civilization and capture what he saw as the spiritual essence of indigenous life.