MOUNT OROHENA PAINTED BY PAUL GAUGUIN

PAUL GAUGUIN  (1848-1903)

Mount Orohena  (2,241m -7,352 ft)

French Polynesia (Tahiti)

In Les Montagnes Tahitiennes, 1893, oil on canvas 

The mountain 

Mont Orohena  (2,241m- 7,352 ft) is a extinct volcano located in the South Pacific, on the island of Tahiti (French Polynesia).  It is the highest point of the french Polynesia and listed as an  "Ultra proeminent peak".  The first ascent of Orehana was made September 28, 1953 by Alphonse and Charles Hollande, Tiaore and Varuamana. Although his height is in the moderately difficult ascents, climb the Orohena remains a real challenge. The difficulties are related both to the climate, the terrain, the significant and rapid vertical drop, the Shape of the summit, to the heavy load that should carry on his back during the ascent. First thing to know in Tahiti: the trails are not maintained, and the dangers are many.  It is imperative to check the weather before you start to climb, the weather changes very quickly on Orohena and rainstorms can be a nightmare !!! Second thing to know: it takes the cold night on the Orohena.

The painter 
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (was a French post-Impressionist artist. Under appreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and synthetist style that were distinctly different from Impressionism. His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Gauguin's art became popular after his death, partially from the efforts of art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who organized exhibitions of his work late in his career, as well as assisting in organizing two important posthumous exhibitions in Paris. Many of his paintings were in the possession of Russian collector Sergei Shchukin as well as other important collections.
After a first voyage in 1850,  Gauguin set out for Tahiti again on 28 June 1895. His return is characterised by Thomson as an essentially negative one, his disillusionment with the Paris art scene compounded by two attacks on him in the same issue of Mercure de France; one by Emile Bernard, the other by Camille Mauclair. 

He arrived in September 1895 and was to spend the next six years living, for the most part, an apparently comfortable life as an artist-colon near, or at times in, Papeete. During this time he was able to support himself with an increasingly steady stream of sales and the support of friends and well-wishers, though there was a period of time 1898–1899 when he felt compelled to take a desk job in Papeete, of which there is not much record. 

His health took a decided turn for the worse and he was hospitalised several times for a variety of ailments. While he was in France, he had his ankle shattered in a drunken brawl on a seaside visit to Concarneau. The injury, an open fracture, never healed properly. Now painful and debilitating sores that restricted his movement were erupting up and down his legs. These were treated with arsenic. Gauguin blamed the tropical climate and described the sores as "eczema", but his biographers agree this must have been the progress of syphilis.