The Entrance to the Tautira River, Tahiti. Fisherman Spearing a Fish
This is a landscape painting depicting a body of water surrounded by greenery, with tall green and purple mountains in the background under a sky full of dark pink clouds and a strip of bright blue-green. To the right of center, a person stands in the water, submerged up to their thighs. The person faces away from us. Their skin is painted in shades of light orange and tan, and they have an orange cloth wrapped around their waist. They hold a long, thin spear, and look down at the water. Behind them, on the opposite shore, another indistinct person looks on, standing on the grassy green ground. At the edge of the tall mountains is a line of green trees. The wide water reflects the green and purple of the mountains, as well as the pink of the sky.
Colors in this work
Details
- Artist
- John La Farge
- Date
- c. 1895
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 136 x 152.4 cm (53 9/16 x 60 in.) framed: 152.4 x 168.3 x 4.4 cm (60 x 66 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.)
- Department
- CAB
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Adolph Caspar Miller Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
7 tags
Subject Matter
-
Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 99%
The National Gallery of Art identifies the work as a landscape painting, and the image centers on a broad river surrounded by vegetation and mountains.
-
Water Both · 99%
Water occupies much of the foreground and middle ground; the catalog identifies the setting as the Tautira River and describes its reflections.
-
Figures in Nature Both · 98%
The title and catalog description identify a fisherman spearing a fish, while the image shows a person standing in the river with a long spear and another figure on the far shore.
-
Reflections Both · 95%
The image visibly shows reflected and blended passages of green, purple, pink, and blue-green across the river, consistent with the catalog description of reflected mountain and sky colors.
Visual Qualities
-
Bright and Vivid Colors Both · 92%
The image uses strong green, turquoise, violet, and pink-orange passages, and the catalog specifically describes dark pink clouds, bright blue-green sky, and green and purple mountains.
Medium and Techniques
-
Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The catalog records the medium as oil on canvas.
Time Periods
-
Late 19th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to circa 1895, placing it in the late nineteenth century.
Source & rights
John La Farge. The Entrance to the Tautira River, Tahiti. Fisherman Spearing a Fish. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
High-resolution sources
- IIIF image service ↗ 15,078 × 13,440 · National Gallery Of Art · Available