"An important figure in the world of art in Tahiti" wrote his friend Frank Fay, on the day of his death in Papeete, in December 1965. Yes, we have here yet another true artist, famous in his own country, who will find himself buried in the South Pacific for ever.

This is a curious story. He was Dutch and Winner of the Rome "grand Prix" as a painter at the beginning of the century. A.H. Gouwe had a more than honorable career as a painter, before the first World War. Attracted by sunshine he sailed round the Mediterranean sea, Italy, Spain and Morocco. At home he is better known for his enormous hairy legged cart-horses., the pride of Dutch brewers who used them for the delivery of their goods. His interpretation is popular. He found himself unable to keep up with demand and was under contract with a dealer who was harassing him.

He was fifty two when he read, by chance, in a Toulon newspaper, an article written by a sea captain and what strange things do vocations depend upon made up his mind to attempt the venture. He landed in Papeete in 1927. At first he toured the island on foot carrying his artist's equipment on his back. He was overwhelmed by the kindness and hospitality of the natives. Wishing to visit the neighboring islands, he stopped for a while in Raiatea. The owner of the Hotel Fontana once said to him: "You are an artist and here we do not charge artists !". He stayed for four years in Tahaa, before settling down in Hanua, about twenty kilometers away from Uturoa. Looking for peace there, he built, partly with his own hands, a small native hut. His little studio-cabin was more than frugal but everything there was tidy and clean. He led a simple life, and "above all had a deep and meaningful taste for discomfort" said one of his friends one day. He slept on wooden planks and once said jokingly "I have as many callosities on my sides as under my feet", "and could not care less about a mattress". In fact his sole interest was his art, not his personal comfort. He was totally devoted to his painting and quite happy to sacrifice everything else as long as he could get to the bottom of things and attain the necessary concentration to grasp the essence of a face, a dancing scene, a place or a landscape. He was a perfectionist, mistrusting too hastily done work and was a slow worker. He wrote to his friend Sandford who was urging him to finish the long started painting of Bora Bora which he had been promised: "Your picture, I am almost ashamed, but I have said the word  it is coming on slowly, for its setting is awkward and full of details. If I was not so fastidious, I would send it to you but I want it to reach a perfect purity of colour". Francis Sandford, Faaa's deputy mayor, was right to wait; he now owns in his home for his ever renewed pleasure and satisfaction the "Great Mound of Bora Bora seen from the dock" a beautiful thing indeed, that one never tires of as it expresses so much in an altogether personal and authentic manner, leaning towards the sky, a marvel in Tahitian creation. There were many landscapes in the catalogues of Gouwe's works. He exhibited in Tahiti in 1935, in 1940 and in 1956, but the catalogues, being simple title lists, do not give any color plates and if one were to visit a Tahitian home by chance, one might be lucky enough to come across and admire one of those paintings, so sensitive and original, bathed in the extraordinary luminescent golden blue Gris was so fond of.

He also executed in oil, a number of portraits, studies of heads or the human body. The ones he signed at the beginning of his stay, around 1930, reflect a calm and tender beauty. The Vognin collection owns a "Tahitian maternity", silhouetting a young woman, all softness and maternal love. It dates of around that time. One never tires of watching the expression of love, admiring and at the same time caressing, flowing together with her milk towards this child she has handed over to life.

Gouwe also depicted local scenes: family meals in the bamboo hut, watched over by domestic animals, fei carriers, dug-out canoes, fishermen.

He was also fascinated by the dancing. He strove to express its cheerful party-like atmosphere, the loud rhythm of its orchestras, nimble gesticulations of its participants, in sorts of pictural synthesis made of rapid rhythms and fantastic colours. He even dabbed into historical pictures about the ancient Polynesian religion. For example the launching of a War canoe, heaved towards the sea by rollers made out of the bodies of a dozen or so human victims exudes savage barbarity while retaining an almost unbearable religiousness.