Gauguin painted Fatata te miti (By the Sea) in 1892 during his first trip to Tahiti. Like Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) painted at the same time, it is an example of the relatively few straightforward genre scenes that Gauguin painted immediately after setting up his studio in a native bamboo hut at Mataiea, Papeari.[3] Nevertheless, as Nancy Mowll Mathews, biographer of Gauguin's erotic life, points out, neither represents what he actually saw; the paintings transforming the mundane and ordinary into an exoticized view of the island's life.[4] A pendant painting Arearea no varua ino (The Amusement of the Evil Spirit), executed shortly after Gauguin had returned to Paris, demonstrates how he moved on from simple genre painting, introducing symbolist elements.[3]
The painting depicts two naked Tahitian woman, seen from behind, jumping into the sea. There is a fisherman in the background, fishing with a spear. The painting epitomizes the romantic view of Tahitians made famous by Pierre Loti's Loki. The woman go bathing naked, removing their pareos, apparently unbothered by the presence of the fisherman nearby. This is an image of the uninhibited tropical paradise Gauguin had hoped to find, although the reality was that Polynesian culture had been transformed by western missionaries and colonialism as they imposed their own values and religion on the people living in the islands.[3][5]
The painting was previously owned by Chester Dale, who left his collection to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. in 1962.[6]