Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), becoming the most expensive artwork ever, selling for nearly $300 million in 2015. It is an oil painting from 1892 by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin (1848-1903) was not a particularly popular artist while he was alive, and it was only after his death at the age of fifty-four when his talent was fully recognized.
Gauguin visited Tahiti twice. His first trip was in 1891 after becoming estranged from his wife and was facing financial difficulties given the unpopularity of his art.
He came up with the idea of making the voyage to paint illustrations for the most popular novel at the time, Pierre Loti’s The Marriage of Loti.
When Will You Marry? by Paul Gauguin in 1892
