Eve ['The Nightmare'] (recto); Eve ['The Nightmare'] (verso)

Paul Gauguin

about 1899–1900

Black printer's ink, ochre ink, and liquid solvent (recto); Graphite and blue crayon pencil with traces of a diluted oil medium (verso), on wove paper, Graphite

J. Paul Getty Museum

A nude woman stands with her hand to her chin, looking to the left. Behind her, a dark, amorphous shape with a horse-like head looms, and a coiled snake is visible at the bottom right. If my work must be limited to watercolor, pastel, or anything else all the spirit goes out of it ... I have at this moment a series of experimental drawings that I'm fairly pleased with. I'm sending you a small specimen; it's like an impression and yet it isn't. Thick ink replaces pencil, that's all... --Paul Gauguin Near the end of his life in isolated French Polynesia, Gauguin invented his own technique to produce this unique, double-sided image. Both sides depict a young Tahitian woman as Eve in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by the Devil as a snake, a dark figure on horseback, and a fallen Adam. One side of the drawing consists