Le récit de Frederick O'Brien est surtout connu pour le film qu'il a inspiré ; c'était en 1928, et la M.G.M. avait prévu d'en confier la réalisation à Robert Flaherty ¹.

Frederick O'Brien a passé une année aux îles Marquises, principalement à Hiva Oa, une petite vingtaine d'années après le séjour de Gauguin. Son témoignage est donc loin de présenter la fiabilité et la précision de celui de Guillaume Le Bronnec ; il n'est pourtant pas sans intérêt.

Quoiqu'affirme Frederik O'Brien, les traces physiques du passage de Gauguin étaient certainement toutes effacées à l'époque, mais le personnage n'était pas oublié pour autant, au contraire ! O'Brien rapporte les propos d'un certain Baufré : “ He was a worker. Drunk or sober, he would paint.  Oui, I have seen him with a bottle of absinthe in him, and still he would paint. Early in the morning he was at work at his easel in the studio or under the trees, and every day he painted till the light was gone. His only use for the cart was to carry him and his easel and chair to scenes he would paint. He would shoot that accursed morphine into his belly when the pain was too bad, and he would drink wine and talk and paint ” — pp. 147-148.

EXTRAIT

« Mon dieu ! I am not a philosopher ! » [said] Baufré. “ Of what good is that ? Gauguin was a philosopher, and he is dead and buried on Calvary. You know how he suffered ? His feet and legs were very bad. Every day he had to tie them up. He could not wear shoes, but he painted, and drank absinthe, and injected the morphine into his belly, and painted. “ Sapristi ! He was a brave one ! Am I not here over thirty years, and have I met a man like Gauguin ? He never worried. He painted. The dealer in Paris sent him five hundred francs a month, and he gave away everything. He cared only for paint. And now he is gone. ” ☐ pp. 146-147