Abstract: In 1892, the artist Paul Gauguin executed in Tahiti a canvas titled Manao tupapau. On the back of his native companion, lying naked, on her stomach, stands a tupapau, the evil ghost of local legends that came back to torment his relatives. Through the comments on his painting, the painter presents this character as a “pretext", beyond folklor, to mask the indecency of a nude study.
