ALS in French, one page, 8 x 10, February 1903. Handwritten letter to Brigadier Claverie, written from his final home in Atuona, Hiva Oa, French Polynesia, interceding on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Anaiapa in a judicial matter. In part (translated): "In the name of the natives of Anaiapa, I come to ask you to ask the administrator to dismiss the native chief of this district for having given false testimony in court, which he admitted before witnesses heard by you." In fine condition, with a small chip, and old tape stain, to the top edge.
Gauguin frequently found himself at odds with political officials of French Polynesia, serving as both an unofficial spokesman for the native population and an agitator on their behalf. As a means of protest, he withheld his own taxes and urged fellow settlers to do the same. He also encouraged natives to withdraw their children from school, and protested against local corruption and the exploitation of prisoners.
At the beginning of 1903, Gauguin engaged in a campaign designed to expose the incompetence of the island's gendarmes, in particular Jean-Paul Claverie, for taking the side of the natives directly in a case involving the alleged drunkenness of a group of them. Claverie, however, escaped censure. At the beginning of February, Gauguin wrote to the administrator, François Picquenot, alleging corruption by one of Claverie's subordinates. Picquenot investigated the allegations but could not substantiate them. Claverie responded by filing a charge against Gauguin of libeling a gendarme. He was subsequently fined 500 francs and sentenced to three months' imprisonment by the local magistrate on March 27, 1903. Gauguin immediately filed an appeal in Papeete and set about raising the funds to travel there, but died suddenly on the morning of May 8, 1903, before the appeal could be heard. A fantastic autograph from the important painter, evoking his interest in native culture.
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