In the early part of his career as a painter, Gauguin had painted primarily landscapes en plein air in the Impressionist manner.

[1] Following Bernard's example but developing it further, Gauguin painted Vision After the Sermon, which marked his interest in interpreting religious subject matter in a highly personal way.

Finding inspiration in Japanese woodblock prints from Hiroshige and Hokusai, which he owned,[3] Gauguin developed the idea of non-naturalistic landscapes.

He applies large areas of flat color to the composition, and the red ground departs from the conventional representation of earth, field, or grass.

In portraying the watching figures Gauguin experiments with the distortion of shapes, exaggerating features, and use of strong contour lines rather than gradual shifts in tone that most painters practiced.

While formal elements of Gauguin's paintings reflect the influence of Japanese prints, his choice of subject matter and composition are uniquely his own.