Gauguin painting could fetch £14m

Gauguin painted Deux Femmes in 1902, a year before his death

A work by the Paris-born artist Paul Gauguin is expected to fetch £14m at auction in London later this month.

Deux Femmes, painted in 1902, a year before the artist's death, depicts two native women of Tahiti set against "a background of symbolical senses".

It is described as the most important Gauguin to appear at auction in Europe in 15 years.

The painting will be sold at Sotheby's on 7 February as part of its Impressionist and Modern Art Sale.

Exoticism

Born in 1848, Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin was first drawn to Tahiti in 1891 after being disillusioned by what he described as "the European struggle for money".

The blend of exoticism and mysticism he developed in the last 12 years of his life was seen as a major influence on the development of modern art.

"In order to do something new we must go back to the source, to humanity in its infancy," he said.

A rare painting by Vincent Van Gogh inspired by Gauguin's work is expected to fetch more than $40m (£22.5m) at Christie's New York auction house in May.