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''Merahi metua no Tehamana'' is an 1893 painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin, currently in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Ancestors of Tehamana OR Tehamana Has Many Parents (Merahi metua no Tehamana), 1893 )〕 The painting is a portrait of Paul Gauguin's native wife Teha'amana during his first visit to Tahiti in 1891-1893. This marriage has always provoked controversy because of the manner it was contracted and Teha'amana's age: the marriage was arranged and completed in the course of a single afternoon and Gauguin claimed Teha'amana was just thirteen years old at the time. A sculpted head is also known to be a portrait of Teha'amana. She is assumed to have posed for numerous other paintings of the time, including the celebrated ''Spirit of the Dead Watching''.〔Danielsson (1965) pp. 118, 126〕 == Teha'amana == Teha'amana was the native wife of Paul Gauguin during his first visit to Tahiti in 1891 to 1893.〔Thomson pp.156-7〕〔Mathews pp. 179-82〕〔Danielsson (1965) ch. v. ''The Marriage of Koke'' in ''Gauguin in the South Seas'' pp. 107-35〕 It was extremely common at that time for French ''colonists'' to take native wives; the wives simply referred to as ''vahine'', Tahitian for "woman". These ''vahines'' were often very young, as was the case with Teha'amana, their marriage being arranged by their family for reasons of status or financial advantage. The daughters involved usually entered such marriages willingly, the marriages generally being non-binding and the girl free to return home at any time.〔Danielsson (1965) p. 108〕 Indeed, of Gauguin's three ''vahines'', the two he took after Teha'amana did eventually return home while Teha'aman herself declined to continue their relationship when Gauguin returned to Tahiti in 1895.〔Danielsson (1965) pp. 182, 207, 228, 255〕 Teha'amana undoubtedly saw herself as conventionally married according to her local customs, but for Gauguin the marriage was clearly a temporary arrangement.〔Thomson p. 164〕〔Danielsson (1965) pp. 115-7〕〔Pollock, ''Going Native'' or ''The Politics of Prostitutionalization'' in ''Avant-Garde Gambits: Gender and the Colour of Art History'' pp. 35-42〕 Nevertheless he did profess a tender love for Teha'amana in his journal '. Pierre Loti's ''Le Mariage de Loti'', a book that influenced Gaugin's decision to travel to Tahiti, was an immensely popular account of such a marriage twenty years earlier, although in that case the marriage was actually a fictional composite of many casual liaisons indulged by Loti during a two-month visit to Papeete. In Loti's account his wife was fourteen years old, while in Gaugin's account Teha'amana was just thirteen years old. The name Teha'amana is formed from the definite article ''te'', the causative particle ''ha'a'' and the substantive ''mana'' ("strength"), and thus signifies "giver of strength", hence its frequent occurrence in ancient prayers and folklore.〔Danielsson p. 112〕 In his account of their idyll together, Gauguin described how in the evenings Teha'amana would recount their ancient myths as they lay in bed.〔Paul Gauguin (''Noa Noa'' p. 91 ''ff.'' )〕 Teha'amana was nevertheless a Christian, as evidenced by the missionary dress she wears in the portrait, and would have known nothing of Tahitian mythology. Bengt Danielsson, the ''Kon-Tiki'' anthropologist, notes that Teha'amana recounting the old myths is an especially barefaced fiction, because not only were these largely forgotten, they had always been withheld from women. All Gauguin's accounts of ancient Tahitian religion in ''Noa Noa'' were copied from other sources without adequate acknowledgement.〔Daniellson p. 158〕〔Solomon-Godeau pp. 326, 328〕 Having a ''vahine'' brought practical advantages regarding food supplies. This was because Tahitian families were self-sufficient in food. The staples of breadfruit and bananas were gathered high in the mountains on a weekly basis, while fish was abundant in the lagoons. Pigs were hunted in the undergrowth. As a consequence there was no trade in foodstuffs and offering food was regarded as an act of charity. Gauguin had no time to gather food for himself, even if he had the skill and strength, if he was to paint as well. He was thus forced to provision himself with very expensive tinned European food from the local Chinese merchant. Having a ''vahine'' meant at least he had access to wild fruit and fresh shrimp gathered by her, as well as her own family's extensive food stores.〔Danielsson p. 93〕〔Solomon-Godeau p. 325〕 Gauguin's account of Teha'amana in ''Noa Noa'', where he refers to her as ''Tehura'', is mainly confined to their marriage, contracted in a single afternoon in the course of a planned excursion round the island, and a few other episodes including notably the genesis of his painting ''Spirit of the Dead Watching''.〔Paul Gauguin (''Noas Noa'' p. 61 ''ff.'' )〕 Danielsson was able to find some oral and civic sources in the course of his researches. Teha'amana's family came from Rarotonga, one of the Cook Islands. Before settling in Tahiti, they spent some time in Huahine, one of the Society Islands, where Teha'amana was born.〔Danielsson (1965) p. 109〕 In Tahiti they settled at Fa'aone, some fifteen miles to the east of Gauguin's bamboo hut at Mataiea, where Gauguin encountered them at some time during or after November 1891, taking Teha'amana as his ''vahine'' the same day. No birth certificate is known to confirm her age, but it is likely she was in her early teens, as were his two subsequent ''vahines''.〔Mathews p. 179〕 She was pregnant by August 1892 according to a letter of Gauguin's,〔Paul Gauguin (Letter IX to Monfreid ), incorrectly dated 31 March 1892 rather than September 1892 according to Danielsson (1965) n.94〕 but there is no further record of the child: Danielsson thought it had been aborted, Mathews thinks it more likely it was adopted, as was commonly the custom in Tahitian society. Gauguin records Teha'amana was at the quay on 14 June 1893 to wish him a traditionally tearful departure from Tahiti. When Gauguin returned in 1895, Teha'amana had married again, but nevertheless spent a week with him before returning to her husband, according to a letter Gauguin sent Monfreid.〔Paul Gauguin (Letter XVI to Daniel Monfreid )〕 Gauguin makes no further mention of Teha'amana. After his death, when he had become famous, Teha'amana made no effort to come forward as his ''vahine''. Mathews thinks this may indicate there was in reality no single Teha'amana, or that she was simply indifferent to his memory as a matter of little consequence.〔Mathews p. 213〕 After Gauguin left in 1893, Teha'amana remained in Mataiea, working at first for Chief Tetuanui, but soon marrying a young Tahitian boy, named Ma'ari, from neighbouring Papara. She bore him two sons, one of whom was still alive when Danielsson was researching Gauguin. From him, Danielsson gathered the information that the reason Teha'amana declined to live with Gauguin in 1895, despite generous gifts of bead necklaces and brass rings, was that she was repulsed by the syphilitic sores covering his entire body.〔Danielsson (1965) p. 182 n. 157〕 Danielsson was able to locate a death certificate showing that Teha'amana died on 9 December 1918 in Mataiea from the Spanish flu epidemic that carried off a quarter of Tahiti's native population. She is buried in Mataiea, although her tombstone bears no indication of her relationship with Gauguin. A ''circa'' 1888 photograph of a young Tahitian girl by Charles Georges Spitz is often reproduced as one of Teha'amana, although Danielsson points out there is no evidence at all for the identification.〔Danielsson (1975 - revised French edition) p. 123 n. 57〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Merahi metua no Tehamana」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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, polychromed pua wood, H. 22.2 cm. Realized during Gauguin's first voyage to Tahiti. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.jpg){kind=link}