The Siesta
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 snapshot 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 everyday, Gauguin worked on the canvas over a long period, making several changes (for example the shopping bag in the foreground was previously a dog
