Paul Gauguin | Early Works

Paul Gauguin was a French post-impressionist painter.

Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848. However, the family moved to Peru when he was one, a journey on which his father died. Here, among his mother’s relatives, he enjoyed a privileged upbringing for a time, before the family’s fortunes fell and they returned to France. Gauguin was then brought up by his grandfather in Orléans.

At the age of 14 Gauguin went to a naval preparatory school in Paris, and at 18 he joined the French navy, serving for two years. Returning to Paris in 1871, Gauguin became a successful stockbroker and art dealer. He also painted in his spare time. As an art dealer in Paris, he came to know the work of the Impressionists, and some time in the mid 70s became friends with Camille Pissarro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0tTLZR6Ioo). Through this friendship he became a part of the Impressionists’ circle and from 1880 exhibited pictures at the Impressionist exhibitions.

Following a stock market crash in 1882, Gauguin determined to take up painting full time and to make his living from it. In 1884 he moved to Denmark with his wife and five children, but the fraught marriage failed and in 1885 he moved back to Paris alone. In 1886 Gauguin spent the summer in Brittany in north-west France at an artists colony, which he would return to a number of times over the next few years. In 1887, Gauguin spent six months on the Caribbean island of Martinique, after getting off the boat there while being repatriated to France from Panama! It was here that he first developed an interest for the exotic, tropical climes, and ‘primitive’ societies.

During the late 1880s, and under the influence of friends such as Émile Bernard, painting in Brittany, he began to move away from Impressionism and develop the style that he would become known for. This was termed Cloisonnism by one critic, after it reminded him of the medieval technique of enamel decoration, cloisonné. However, the true influences were more the Japanese art which was en vogue in Europe at the time. This is seen both in the picture ‘The Wave’, shown here, and also in the flattened figures that populate his work. Also during this period, Gauguin became acquainted with Vincent Van Gogh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt4rGay3tGE) through his art dealer brother Theo. Van Gogh was a big admirer of Gauguin’s work. He invited Gauguin down to visit him at his home in Arles in the South of France. This visit culminated in Van Gogh cutting off his own ear. After this episode the two never saw each other again though they continued to correspond.

Gauguin had spent much of his unconventional life travelling, and in 1891 set out on his next adventure. He would make a prolonged stay in Tahiti (a French colony at the time) in Polynesia in order to escape European ‘civilisation’. However, what he found there was not quite the idyll he had imagined. The society was much influenced by the influx of French culture. In order to try to connect with the almost lost aboriginal culture of Tahiti, he immersed himself in books written by the first French explorers to have explored the islands.

When he returned to France in 1893, Gauguin continued to paint Tahitian subjects and frequently wore Polynesian clothing. This built up the mystique around him and was a good sales tool to make him stand out - ‘oh look, it’s the guy who went to Tahiti’. However, he began to struggle for money again, brought about in part by a break with the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. By 1895 he had decided to return to Tahiti, and would never return to Europe. He regularly sent paintings back to Paris, and made enough to live comfortably in Tahiti. In 1901 he moved again, to Hiva-Oa in the Marquesas Islands, again finding a society completely changed by Western influence.

For some years Gauguin’s health had been deteriorating, following a broken ankle received in a fight in France in 1894. He was also probably suffering from syphilis. He considered returning to Spain for treatment but was convinced not to by his art dealer who argued it would destroy his mystique (and damage sales) to return to Europe.

Gauguin died in 1903 aged 54.

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Learn more about Gauguin and his controversial life here:

With Waldemar Januszczak @PerspectiveArts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0n6HaLuLm8

Or over here @theartshole311
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokqahlbqBE

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#Gauguin #impressionism #arthistory #postimpressionism

Видео Paul Gauguin | Early Works канала Claritas