<P> Gauguin had been a student at the Petit Séminaire de La Chapelle - Saint - Mesmin, just outside Orléans, from the age of eleven to the age of sixteen . His subjects there included a class in Catholic liturgy; the teacher for this class was the Bishop of Orléans, Félix - Antoine - Philibert Dupanloup . Dupanloup had devised his own catechism to be lodged in the minds of the young schoolboys, and to lead them towards proper spiritual reflections on the nature of life . The three fundamental questions in this catechism were: "Where does humanity come from?" "Where is it going to?", "How does humanity proceed?". Although in later life Gauguin was vociferously anticlerical, these questions from Dupanloup's catechism obviously had lodged in his mind, and "where?" became the key question that Gauguin asked in his art . </P> <P> Looking for a society more simple and elemental than that of his native France, Gauguin left for Tahiti in 1891 . In addition to several other paintings that express his highly individualistic mythology, he completed this painting in 1897 or 1898 . Gauguin considered it a masterpiece and the grand culmination of his thought . He was in despair when he undertook the painting, mourning the tragic death of his favourite daughter earlier in the year and oppressed by debts, and had planned to kill himself on finishing it . He subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt with an overdose of arsenic . Thomson thinks it quite possible that he only painted in the inscription while recovering from the attempt . </P> <P> Gauguin indicated that the painting should be read from right to left, with the three major figure groups illustrating the questions posed in the title . The three women with a child represent the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of young adulthood; and in the final group, according to the artist, "an old woman approaching death appears reconciled and resigned to her thoughts"; at her feet, "a strange white bird...represents the futility of words ." The blue idol in the background apparently represents what Gauguin described as "the Beyond ." Of its entirety he said, "I believe that this canvas not only surpasses all my preceding ones, but that I shall never do anything better--or even like it ." </P> <P> The painting is an accentuation of Gauguin's trailblazing post-impressionistic style; his art stressed the vivid use of colors and thick brushstrokes, tenets of the impressionists (though the Impressionists focused on quick brushstrokes), while it aimed to convey an emotional or expressionistic strength . It emerged in conjunction with other avant - garde movements of the twentieth century, including cubism and fauvism . </P>

Who are we where did we come from where are we going