Paul Gauguin and the island of Tahiti have had such and established association that all previous artistic talents have been hidden. However, Paul Gauguin was only the last in a long line of French artists to paint the island and its neighbourly archipelagos. Four of them are studied : Jules-Louis Lejeune, Max Radiguet, Charles Giraud and Pierre Loti. The historical research bases on drawings realized by expeditions to Polynesia revolves arount three themes : the history of the myth of Tahiti and its artists, the history of the representations of Tahiti, and art as a source of the history of Tahiti. Since the mythe of Tahiti, which links the island to love and to an earthly paradise, belongs within the realm of French general knowledge, its foundations and evolution need to be understood. This is to determine ist impact on artists and their works. These works of art, convey, transpose and distort, or in a word depict a reality cast within a mould of trends of thought, philosophical concepts and scientific approaches. This iconographic group consistently interweaves individual and collective features of long and short duration. Thus, the second part of the thesis sets out to analyze and sort out some of these aspects. The last part describes the publishing development of drawings and their contribution to the history of Tahiti through three themes : the so-called 'guerre franco-tahitienne', the Tahitian woman, the key feature of the myth which calls upon social history, and queen Pomare IV, in whom myth and history merge. |
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