In the Vanilla Grove, Man and Horse

A Tahitian man stands beside a white horse in a lush tropical grove, the forms simplified into flat, decorative areas of warm color. Gauguin painted it during his first stay in Tahiti, seeking an unspoiled, sensuous world far from European civilization. Now in the Guggenheim's Thannhauser collection, In the Vanilla Grove shows his South Seas style - bold, flattened color, languid figures, and an idealized vision of island life. Whatever the troubling realities behind his Tahitian fantasy, the picture distills the decorative serenity and longing for paradise that drove his late art.