Arii Matamoe [SEP] creator
Arii Matamoe
Arii Matamoe, also titled The Royal End () is a painting on coarse cloth by the French artist Paul Gauguin, created in 1892 during the painter's first visit to Tahiti. It depicts a man's severed head on a pillow, displayed before mourners, and although it did not depict a common or contemporary Tahitian mourning ritual, may have been inspired by the death of Pōmare V in 1891 shortly after Gauguin's arrival. A curator for the J. Paul Getty Museum suggested Gauguin likely painted the canvas "
in proving himself to a Parisian art market".
The words "ARii" (meaning "noble" or "royal", related to the Hawaiian word ali'i) and "MATAMOE" (meaning "sleeping eyes" and implying, in this context, death) are here written in the upper left background above the severed head, which itself alludes to imagery frequently seen in European painting such as of St. John the Baptist and Orpheus. The phrase "ARii MATAMOE", written in crisp capital letters, serves somewhat