Bora Bora, circa 1905
by Lucien Gauthier

Lucien Gauthier arrived in French Polynesia in 1904, just one year after the death of the artist Paul Gauguin, and helped propagate the myth of Polynesia as Eden, a place outside of time. Taking inspiration from Gauguin, this image of islanders in an idyllic setting with Mount Otemanu rising through the mist in the distance succeeds in creating the same sense of romanticism and beauty that Gauguin expressed in many of this paintings.