“Voilà la partie musicale : lignes horizontales ondulantes, accords d’orangé et de bleu reliés par des jaunes et des violets leurs dérivés.”(11)
(This is the musical part: Undulating horizontal lines, harmony of orange and blue linked by shades of yellow and purple.)
(English translation)
GAUGUIN: What could a Kanak young girl be doing just lying naked on a bed?
THE INTERIOR VOICE AND THE THREE NARRATORS: Preparing herself for love!
GAUGUIN: This is indeed in her nature, but this is obscene and I don’t want it.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: Sleeping!
GAUGUIN: The act of love is finished, which is also obscene. I can only see the fear.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: What kind of fear?
GAUGUIN: The Tupapaù – the Spirit of the Dead – is the first to come to my mind.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: for Kanaks this is a constant fear.
GAUGUIN: Once I find my Tupapaù, I completely connect myself to him and I make him the motif of my painting, a chaste painting full of Kanak spirit, full of its character and its tradition. Since the paréo plays such an important role in Kanak women’s life, I use it as a bedspread.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: The sheet must be yellow, because only this colour can arouse unexpected feelings in those who watch.
GAUGUIN: Because it suggests lamp lighting, which means I don’t have to create a lamplight effect. I need a terribly strong background: purple is the most appropriate.
This is the musical part
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: Undulating horizontal lines, harmony of orange and blue linked by shades of yellow and purple.
GAUGUIN: Lightened up by greenish sparks.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: Lightened up by greenish sparks.
GAUGUIN: When a Kanak woman thinks about the dead, she necessarily thinks about someone who she already knew. My ghost will be some woman, one of an ordinary sort.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: She stretches out her hand as if ready to grab a prey.
GAUGUIN: Either she thinks about the ghost, or the ghost thinks about her. This is the literary part.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: This is the literary part:
GAUGUIN: the spirit of the living tied to the spirit of the Dead.
THE VOICE AND THE NARRATORS: Like night and day
GAUGUIN: This is for those who always want to know the how and the why. Otherwise, just take it as nothing else than an Oceanian nude study.
