Editing Paul Gauguin (section)

=== Death ===
[[File:Oviri on the Tomb of Gauguin.jpg|thumb|''Oviri'' figure on Gauguin's grave in [[Calvary Cemetery, Atuona|Atuona]]]]
At the beginning of 1903, Gauguin engaged in a campaign designed to expose the incompetence of the island's gendarmes, in particular Jean-Paul Claverie, for taking the side of the natives directly in a case involving the alleged drunkenness of a group of them.<ref>Paul Gauguin, {{Google books|PvLDAgAAQBAJ|Intimate Journals|page=68|plainurl=}}</ref> Claverie, however, escaped censure. At the beginning of February, Gauguin wrote to the administrator, François Picquenot, alleging corruption by one of Claverie's subordinates. Picquenot investigated the allegations but could not substantiate them. Claverie responded by filing a charge against Gauguin of libeling a gendarme. He was subsequently fined 500 francs and sentenced to three months' imprisonment by the local magistrate on 27 March 1903. Gauguin immediately filed an appeal in Papeete and set about raising the funds to travel to Papeete to hear his appeal.{{sfn|Danielsson|1965|pp=271–274}}

At this time Gauguin was very weak and in great pain and resorted once again to using morphine. He died suddenly on the morning of 8 May 1903.
<ref>Daniellson (1965), pp. 265–276.</ref>{{sfn|Mathews|2001|pp=252–254}}{{efn|Gloria Groom, in the 1988 National Gallery of Art exhibition catalogue (p. 387), asserts that at the end of April the court in Papeete fined Gauguin 500 francs and sentenced him to one month in prison, citing Charles Chassé, "Les Démêlés de Gauguin avec les gendarmes et l'évêque des îles Marquises", ''Mercure de France'', 288 (15 November 1938), 62–75.}}

<gallery widths="150px" heights="150px" class="center">
File:Paul Gauguin 106.jpg|''Cavaliers sur la Plage [II] (Riders on the Beach)'', 1902, [[Private collection]]
File:Paul Gauguin - Landscape with a Pig and a Horse (Hiva Oa) - Google Art Project.jpg|''Landscape with a Pig and a Horse (Hiva Oa)'', 1903, [[Ateneum| Ateneum, Helsinki]]
File:Gauguin Nature morte aux oiseaux exotiques I.jpg| ''Still life with Exotic Birds'', 1902, [[Pushkin Museum]]
File:Paul Gauguin - Jeune fille à l'éventail - Folkwang G53.jpg| ''Jeune fille à l'éventail (Young Girl with a Fan)'', 1902, [[Museum Folkwang]]
File:Paul Gauguin - Contes barbares - Folkwang G54.jpg| ''Contes barbares (Primitive Tales)'', 1902, [[Museum Folkwang]]
</gallery>
Earlier, he had sent for his pastor, Paul Vernier, complaining of fainting fits. They had chatted together, and Vernier had left, believing him in a stable condition. However, Gauguin's neighbour, Tioka, found him dead at 11 o'clock, confirming the fact in the traditional Marquesan way by biting his scalp in an attempt to revive him. By his bedside was an empty bottle of [[laudanum]], which has given rise to speculation that he was the victim of an overdose.{{sfn|Danielsson|1965|p=274}}{{sfn|Danielsson|1965|p=275}} Vernier believed he died of a heart attack.{{sfn|Mathews|2001|p=257}}

[[File:Grab Gauguin.jpg|thumb|180px|Gauguin's grave, Atuona]]
Gauguin was buried in the Catholic [[Calvary Cemetery, Atuona|Calvary Cemetery]] (Cimetière Calvaire), [[Atuona]], Hiva 'Oa, at 2 p.m. the next day. In 1973, a bronze cast of his ''Oviri'' figure was placed on his grave, as he had indicated was his wish.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/letterspaulgaug00gauggoog#page/n145/mode/2up|title=The Letters of Paul Gauguin to Georges Daniel de Monfreid – Monfreid XLVIII|year=1922|publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company}}</ref> Ironically, his nearest neighbor in the cemetery is Bishop Martin, his grave surmounted by a large white cross. Vernier wrote an account of Gauguin's last days and burial, reproduced in O'Brien's edition of Gauguin's letters to Monfreid.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/letterspaulgaug00gauggoog#page/n193/mode/2up|title=The Letters of Paul Gauguin to Georges Daniel de Monfreid|year=1922|pages=172–6|publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company}}</ref>

Word of Gauguin's death did not reach France (to Monfreid) until 23 August 1903. In the absence of a will, his less valuable effects were auctioned in Atuona while his letters, manuscripts, and paintings were auctioned in Papeete on 5 September 1903. Mathews notes that this speedy dispersal of his effects led to the loss of much valuable information about his later years. Thomson notes that the auction inventory of his effects (some of which were burned as pornography) revealed a life that was not as impoverished or primitive as he had liked to maintain.{{sfn|Thomson|1987|p=204}} Mette Gauguin in due course received the proceeds of the auction, some 4,000 francs.{{sfn|Mathews|2001|p=255}} One of the paintings auctioned in Papeete was ''Maternité II'', a smaller version of ''Maternité I'' in the Hermitage Museum. The original was painted at the time his then ''vahine,'' Pau'ura, in Puna'auia, gave birth to their son Emile. It is not known why he painted the smaller copy. It was sold for 150 francs to a French naval officer, Commandant Cochin, who said that Governor Petit himself had bid up to 135 francs for the painting. It was sold at Sotheby's for US$39,208,000 in 2004.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art, Part One New York 04 Nov 2004|url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.pdf.N08022.html/f/15/N08022-15.pdf|website=sothebys.com|publisher=[[Sotheby's]]|access-date=16 March 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114407/http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.pdf.N08022.html/f/15/N08022-15.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Gauguin - Maternite II.jpg|thumb|left|180px|''Maternité II'', 1899, [[private collection]], sold at auction in Papeete, 1903]]
The [[Paul Gauguin Cultural Center]] at Atuona has a reconstruction of the ''Maison du Jouir''. The original house stood empty for a few years, the door still carrying Gauguin's carved lintel. This was eventually recovered, four of the five pieces held at the Musée D'Orsay and the fifth at the [[Paul Gauguin Museum (Tahiti)|Paul Gauguin Museum]] in Tahiti.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bois de la Maison du Jouir [Sculpted wood from the Maison du Jouir]|url=http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/bois-de-la-maison-du-jouir-7099.html?no_cache=1|website=musee-orsay.fr|publisher=[[Musée D'Orsay]]|access-date=16 March 2015|archive-date=21 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221041757/https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/bois-de-la-maison-du-jouir-7099.html?no_cache=1|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2007, four rotten [[Molar (tooth)|molar]]s, which may have been Gauguin's, were found by archaeologists at the bottom of a well that he built on the island of Hiva Oa, on the Marquese Islands.<ref>{{Cite web|date=23 October 2011|title='Gauguin's teeth' found down well|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gauguin-s-teeth-found-down-well-761713.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gauguin-s-teeth-found-down-well-761713.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=17 January 2021|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref> In 2014, forensic examination of these teeth threw into question the conventional belief that Gauguin had suffered from syphilis. DNA examination established that the teeth were almost certainly Gauguin's, but no traces were found of cadmium, mercury, or arsenic, "the standard treatment for syphilis at the time",{{sfn|Prideaux|2024|p=XIII}} suggesting either that Gauguin did not suffer from syphilis or that he was not being treated for it.<ref>{{cite news|last=Bailey|first=Martin|title=Gauguin could be cleared of syphilis—by the skin of his teeth|url=http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Gauguin-could-be-cleared-of-syphilisby-the-skin-of-his-teeth/31842|newspaper=[[The Art Newspaper]]|access-date=27 February 2014}}</ref><ref name="Meier">{{cite web|last1=Meier|first1=Allison|title=Posthumous Prognosis for Supposedly Syphilitic Gauguin, via His Teeth|url=http://hyperallergic.com/111730/posthumous-prognosis-for-supposedly-syphilitic-gauguin-via-his-teeth/|website=hyperallergic.com|date=27 February 2014|publisher=[[Hyperallergic]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209155917/http://hyperallergic.com/111730/posthumous-prognosis-for-supposedly-syphilitic-gauguin-via-his-teeth/|archive-date=9 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>