Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)

A painter, sculptor, and printmaker, Gauguin was born Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin at Paris. His childhood was spent in Peru, his mother's country. From 1872, he worked as a stockbroker, and dedicated himself to art in his spare time, which he had studied only as an amateur. He met Pissarro in 1874 who, along with Cezanne, was to influence his work. In 1876, he had a landscape accepted at the Salon. An exhibition of his works took place at the gallery of Boussod and Valadon in 1888, and another at the Gallery of Durand-Ruel in 1893. Gauguin had quit his work as a stockbroker in 1883 to become a full-time artist, but having little success, he was forced to sell his collection to support his family. In 1886, he abandoned his family and left for Brittany, and then went to Pont-Aven, joining a group of artists there, and completing a number of important works. He went to Panama and Martinique from 1887 to 1888, and was at Arles in 1888 where he quarrelled with Van Gogh, who had his first fit of madness. Gauguin finally found his way to a personal style of decorative, Post-Impressionist, synthetic and symbolic art which can be divided into two decided ways: his Breton way (while he resided at Pont-Aven and at the Pouldhu, 1886 and 1888) and his 'Oceanic' way after his journeys to Martinique in 1887 to 1888, to Tahiti from 1891 to 1893 and 1895 to 1901 and finally to Domingo from 1901 to 1903. He had a love for colourful and exotic places since his childhood, and he sought to capture the emotional directness and spiritual expression of 'primitive' peoples in his works. He died at Atuona, Hiva Oa, French Polynesia. A posthumous exhibition of his works was held at the Salon d'Automne.

Art