Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Arii Matamoe

Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) edit

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 28 Dec 2015 at 17:32:04 (UTC)

Original – Arii Matamoe translates roughly as "Noble Sleep Eyes", although Gauguin appended the French title La Fin royale, or "The Royal End"

Reason: A small (45 × 75 cm) but high-EV Paul Gauguin painting which you'll be forgiven for not being familiar with, as it was publicly exhibited by Durand-Ruel in 1893 in Paris, where it went unsold, and lent just once since 1946 to an obscure exhibition before it was purchased from a private Swiss collector in 2008 by the J. Paul Getty Museum (rumored to have paid around $30 million for it, after eight years of negotiations and iron-clad assurances from the family of its pre-war Jewish owners that it was not subject to a Nazi forced sale, although its wartime circumstances remain very murky). In 2008, a Getty curator called it "the ultimate still life" and "the most famous painting by Gauguin that no one has seen".[1] Gauguin created the image of a decapitated Tahitian king whose head is displayed on a white pillow principally to shock French audiences; this "traditional" decapitation display ritual had disappeared well before Gauguin visited the islands and was not followed after the 1891 death of King Pōmare V. Arii Matamoe is painted on very coarse cloth, the texture of which is exploited by the artist and shown effectively in the Google Art scan.
Articles in which this image appears: Arii Matamoe, Paul Gauguin, J. Paul Getty Museum, List of paintings by Paul Gauguin
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Paintings
Creator: Paul Gauguin, 1892

Support as nominator – In the interests of full disclosure, I recently added this image to both above articles (which is frowned upon, I know, as it could be seen as an appeal to EV). Only to say, the painting already has its own independent articles in French and Dutch, and I'm undertaking one in English, long overdue. Vesuvius Dogg (talk) 17:32, 15 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral until an article on it is created. Haven't seen this painting before either, so an article would help to know it better. Brandmeister^talk 09:15, 16 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

~~Will give it a start in the next few days.~~ Begun. Vesuvius Dogg (talk) 15:20, 16 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Support Brandmeister^talk 09:50, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comment – Ditto Brandmeister. – Sca (talk) 15:55, 16 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support – Yann (talk) 12:05, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Tremonist (talk) 13:04, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Chris Woodrich (talk) 23:49, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support - decapitation makes me cringe but this image meets the criteria; the EV is off the charts --Atsme^📞📧 13:19, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support – Jobas (talk) 17:31, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support - Truth be told, Gauguin is not one of my favorites. But the scan is good, and the article adds immense EV...--Godot13 (talk) 04:42, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support since an article has been created. sst✈^(discuss) 09:48, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:Paul Gauguin (French - Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) - Google Art Project.jpg --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 19:48, 28 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]