Question: where did you come from where do we go from here

title: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
text: In 1898 , Gauguin sent the painting to Georges - Daniel de Monfreid in Paris . Monfreid passed it to Ambroise Vollard along with eight other thematically related pictures shipped earlier . They went on view at Vollard 's gallery from November to December 1898 . The exhibition was a success , although D'où Venons Nous ? received mixed reviews . The critic Andre Fontainas of the Mercure de France acknowledged a grudging respect for the work but thought the allegory impenetrable were it not for the inscription , and compared the painting unfavourably to the murals of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes who had died recently . Vollard had already purchased the other works as a job lot from Monfreid for 1,000 francs ( Gauguin was furious when he found out ) , but refrained from purchasing the larger monumental work and had difficulty selling it on .