Paul Gauguin Life and Works

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Paul Gauguin, French painter and engraver, was a leader of post-impressionism, the anti-naturalist
symbolist movement in art. He broke away from the Impressionist movement in France in order to
create an art that expressed the visions of the mind rather than of the eye. He developed a style in
which the emphasis was on bold, simple lines and clearly defined areas of color.
The colors were expressed freely, with curving areas of vivid reds, oranges, blues, and greens next
to each other representing harmony. Like his friend Vincent Van Gogh and others of their style, their
work came to be called Post-Impressionism - from naturalism to expressionism, to denote a
transition to the great abstract art of the twentieth century.
Early Years of Paul Gauguin
Eugne Henri Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 - May 8, 1903) was born in Paris during the revolution.
His father, Clovis Gauguin, a liberal journalist, went into exile after the coup d'tat of 1851 and
died in Panama, while the family went to Lima, Peru, his mother being of half-Peruvian descent. At
seventeen, he joined the merchant marines for six years. For the next twelve years he worked
successfully as a stockbroker and married a Danish girl, Mette Gad.
The Restless, Struggling Artist
During this period he began drawing and painting, collected Impressionist paintings, and managed
to exhibit with the Impressionists twice. When he was 35 years old, there was a market crash. He
left his stockbroking job, devoted his full time to painting, and moved to Copenhagen with his family.
Unfortunately, exhibition of his work failed. He decided to go back to Paris, where he lived in
extreme poverty but still persisted in painting. In 1891, he left his family in France to go to Tahiti.
Tahiti and the South Seas
In the South Seas, Gauguin created his most famous paintings - primitive, exotic, aggressive, using
abstract patterns and strong colors to depict native figures and landscapes. He also produced wood-
cuts and painted wood-relief in the same primitive style.
Gauguin's life was bereft with poverty, illness and trouble with the French colonial government for
his protests against social injustice while in the South Seas islands.
Last Years
Gauguin continued to travel. He painted in Brittany in northern France. He then sailed to Martinique
Island in the West Indies. When he became ill he returned to Paris but shortly left again. Aged 43, he
went to Tahiti in search of an unspoiled place. Though sick and feverish most of the time, he kept
working. Several times he returned to Paris, but failing to sell his work, ran away again to the South
Seas. Penniless and ill, he continued painting, engraving and carving, creating some of his finest
works.
In May 8, 1903, the artist who had forsaken family, wealth, and friends for his overwhelming passion
for painting, and whose work would be greatly admired throughout the world, died aged 54, alone in
his island hut in French Polynesia.
Gauguin's Legacy and Influence
Gauguin's work is in all the great galleries. A Gauguin Museum was set up in Tahiti in 1965, with his
many documents related to his life and work.
Some of Gauguin's Works
The Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), 1888
Still Life with Head-Shaped Vase and Japanese Woodcut, 1889
Tahitian Women on the Beach, 1891
The Spirit of the Dead Watches, 1892
The Midday Nap, 1894
Link to Gauguin's Art: Gauguin at Artcyclopedia
Sources:
Illustrated Biography Dictionary, edited by John Clark, Chancelor Press, London, 1987
Larousse Dictionary of Painters, Hamlyn, London, 1989
Masters of Art by Samm Sinclair Baker and Natalie Baker, Galahad Books, NY, 1987
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