The Siesta

ca. 1892–94 · Painting

May one see it?

Yes, receiving visitors

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York, United States

Room822

On public display.

Checked: 5 hours ago
In this state since: Sep 26, 2026
Source: The museum's own collection data

On the map Museum page

About the painting

The Siesta is an 1892-1894 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was painted during Gauguin's first extended trip to the island of Tahiti.

The picture is an unpretentious representation of a group of Tahitian women in westernised clothes chatting in the cool shade of a verandah during the hot afternoon sun. One of the women is doing her ironing. Although the subject matter was an aspect of everyday life, Gauguin worked on the canvas over a long period, making several changes - the shopping bag in the foreground, for example, was previously a dog.

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Particulars

Accession number: 1993.400.3

What it shows

Woman Baskets Irons

Sources

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: the museum's own open data · fetched 4 days ago
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Open Access (CC0)

Meanwhile, in the life of Paul Gauguin

The whole life

1870s–1891 · Workplace
Paris
1886–1891 · Workplace
Pont-Aven
February 1891
Successful Auction at the Hôtel Drouot
A successful auction of paintings at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in February 1891, aided by a glowing review from Octave Mirbeau, together with a banquet and a benefit concert, provided the funds for the journey to Tahiti.
1 April 1891
Departure for Tahiti
On 1 April 1891, after a final visit to his wife and children in Copenhagen, Gauguin sailed for Tahiti, intending to escape European civilization and "everything that is artificial and conventional." He spent his first three months in Papeete, then set up a studio in a bamboo hut at Mataiea.
1891–1901 · Workplace
Tahiti
August 1893
Return to France
In August 1893 Gauguin returned to France, where he continued painting Tahitian subjects such as Mahana no atua and Nave nave moe; he rented an apartment on rue Vercingétorix on the edge of Montparnasse and held a weekly salon, cultivating an exotic image.