Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
FROM STOCKBROKER TO SYMBOLIST
Paul Gauguin was born to a radical French journalist father and Peruvian-Creole mother. Soon after Gauguin was born, the family fled France for Peru to escape persecution for his father’s outspoken opinions. As fate would have it, Gauguin’s father subsequently died on the voyage, and the family spent the next few years living with relatives in Lima before returning to France.
After traveling the world with the navy, Gauguin settled in Paris where he became a stockbroker; he married in 1873 and eventually had five children. Gauguin enjoyed painting as a pastime, but he did not pursue it seriously until 1874 when he formed a deep friendship with Camille Pissarro, who also became his mentor. Gauguin exhibited with the Impressionists three times in the years that followed his 1876 debut at the Salon, and an economic downturn in the early 1880s opened the door for him to pursue art full time—although it also negatively affected his finances. His wife moved back to her native Denmark with the children while Gauguin stayed on to paint in Paris.
Gauguin’s rich cultural background and world travels undoubtedly contributed to his artistic sensibilities, and by the 1880s, he was living primarily in the South Pacific. He eventually moved away from Impressionism in favor of a bolder, flatter style that gave way to more symbolic meaning, and his art took on a distinctly primitive flavor. He liked to paint tribal island life untouched by the influence of Western European colonization, which he resented immensely. He spent the last several years of his life living and painting on various South Pacific islands. —RJR
Notable works: The Arlesiennes (Mistral), 1888; Ancestors of Tehamana, 1893; Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897.
FUN FACT
At the time of Gauguin’s death, he was awaiting a three-month long incarceration for openly disparaging the Catholic church and speaking out against colonialism in the South Pacific.