The Siesta (Paul Gauguin)

{{short description|Painting by Paul Gauguin}}

{{italic title}}

{{Infobox artwork

| image_file=File:Paul_Gauguin_044.jpg

| image_size =200px

| title=The Siesta

| artist=Paul Gauguin

| year= 1892 to 1894

| type=Oil paint on canvas

| dimensions = {{convert|88.9|x|116.2|cm|in}}

| city=New York City

| museum=Metropolitan Museum of Art

}}

The Siesta is an 1892-1894 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436449|title=Catalogue entry}} It was painted during Gauguin's first extended trip to the island of Tahiti.

The picture is an unpretentious representation of a group of Tahitian women in westernised clothes chatting in the cool shade of a verandah during the hot afternoon sun. One of the women is doing her ironing.{{cite web|url=https://www.gauguin.org/siesta.jsp|title=Siesta,1893|publisher=Gauguin.org|accessdate= 6 January 2020}} Although the subject matter was an aspect of everyday life, Gauguin worked on the canvas over a long period, making several changes - the shopping bag in the foreground, for example, was previously a dog.