Heads of Tahitian Women, Frontal and Profile Views

Two Tahitian women gaze out from this charcoal drawing, one in a direct frontal view, the other in profile. Their faces are rendered with a powerful simplicity, emphasizing the contours of their features and the weight of their hair. The artist used charcoal and wetted charcoal, manipulating the medium with stumping and erasing to create soft gradations and deep shadows. You can see how the wetted charcoal gives a richer, almost painterly quality to certain areas, particularly in the women's dark hair and the shadowed planes of their faces. This approach allows for a remarkable sense of volume and presence, making these studies feel more like finished portraits than mere preparatory sketches. Created in 1891, the drawing reflects the artist's fascination with the people and culture he encountered during his first extended stay in Tahiti.