Te Fare Amu (The House for Eating), 1895 or 1897, Part 2

In his memoirs, Henry Pearlman described his acquisition of this panel, which he feared would be too sensual in its original form for American audiences. An early black-and-white photograph of the work and x-radiography reveal that the pudenda of the serpentine figure on the left were originally painted another color, probably the same red as the nipple and the row of vertebrae on the spine. Pearlman explained: Although my panel had been exhibited in two museums and an important art gallery in Paris, I decided to have the exposed genitals . . . covered over with tempera (which can readily be removed . . . ) to make it palatable to the American public.