When Paul Gauguin painted Near the Huts in 1887, he was thousands of miles from Paris, living on the Caribbean island of Martinique. This short but pivotal stay would ignite the artist’s lifelong fascination with distant lands, and it is during this period that Gauguin wrote to his friend Émile Schuffenecker: "Here I have found something new, something that is my own." The Martinique paintings, including Near the Huts, are now seen as a crucial turning point, marking the beginning of Gauguin’s move away from Impressionism toward the bold color and simplified forms that would define his later work. In Near the Huts, Gauguin captures a quiet moment in a rural Caribbean village, likely inspired by the daily life he observed among Martinique’s Creole and Afro-Caribbean communities. The scene is suffused with lush greenery, palm fronds arching above simple wooden dwellings, while figures—women in bright dresses—move through the dappled sunlight.

The composition leads the eye along a winding path, drawing us into the heart of the village. The vibrant palette and flattened perspective recall the influence of Paul Cézanne, but Gauguin’s approach is warmer, more intimate, emphasizing the harmony between people and their tropical environment. Unlike the exoticized visions of the tropics painted by earlier European artists, Gauguin’s view feels lived-in and immediate. The exact medium of Near the Huts is not firmly established, though it is likely oil on canvas, as with most of Gauguin’s works from Martinique.

The painting’s early history is somewhat obscure; many of Gauguin’s Martinique works were sent back to France, where they were dispersed among friends, collectors, and dealers. Today, Near the Huts is recognized as an important example of Gauguin’s search for new artistic languages before his celebrated Tahitian period. The Martinique paintings rarely appear in public collections, making each surviving work a rare window into a formative moment in both the artist’s life and the history of modern art.