This striking oil on jute canvas by Paul Gauguin, painted in 1888, presents four women in dark shawls moving through a public garden. The two figures closest to the viewer appear withdrawn, covering their mouths as if against a cold wind, their expressions introspective. Gauguin radically tilts the perspective upwards, simplifying three-dimensional forms into flat shapes, such as the twin orange-yellow cones that dominate the right side of the composition. A peculiar detail is the face subtly integrated into the large green bush in the foreground, an intentional inclusion by the artist that adds an uncanny, watchful presence