It was somewhat surprising to me to see colonialism and nudity put together in the same category, but in the wonderful realm of art history, such thing happened. I have always had a thing for flat colors so the painting called upon my attention almost the instant I saw it. The many shades of purple cooperate perfectly with the beautiful dark skin tone of the woman in the foreground despite her uncomfortable body language of the woman.

Paul Gauguin, the painter is often criticized for being sexist. The object of his paintings is usually exotic, dark-skinned, young female. He is considered one of the original colonial painters who, because of his inabilities to speak anything other than French, traveled only around French colonies.

"Manau tupapau" means spirits of the dead watching. However, some critics had pointed out that the girl looks afraid not because of the ghosts but because of the painter. This is one of the most famous anti-Olympia painting, as in Olympia where the young prostitute willingly shows off her body comfortably to the audience, the girl in Manau tupapau is suppressed by a white male. There is no other painting that explains Colonialism and the Nude more authentically than the Manau tupapau.