Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903), Pintor Francés

http://www.digital-picture-printing-frames.com/paul_gauguin.htm

Paul Gauguin was born in Paris on June 7, 1848 to a loving mother and journalist father. Yet, in 1849, the political activities of his father forced the family into exile, and so because of relational ties on Gauguin’s mothers’ side they decided to move to Peru. However, the journey by sea proved too much for the patriarch of the family, and thus Gauguin’s father passed away during their crossing to Peru. Thankfully, when the remaining family arrived, his mother had family to greet them. Thus she and her two children moved in with her great grand uncle with his family in Lima.

After passing a happy childhood in Lima, Paul Gauguin joined the French Merchant Navy at the age of seventeen. While in the Navy he traveled the world for six years, but he returned home due to the death of his mother in 1867. At that time, he decided to settle down with his wealthy guardian, Gustave Arosa, who happened to be an avid collector of art. His large selection included many works by Delacroix; during this period, the artistic interests of Gauguin were beginning to be shaped. It was also at this time that he began to collect impressionist paintings and started on the road to becoming an amateur painter himself.

Moving back to France in 1872, he embarked on a career as a stockbroker, and pursued painting in his spare time. Due to his fortunate location in Paris Gauguin was able to attend the first exhibition of the impressionists in 1874, where he bought works by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and others. So, when the bank that he worked for went under, Gauguin happily made the transition to a full time painter in the year 1883.

In the first part of his career impressionism and the French impressionists, especially Pissarro, heavily influenced him, and in 1884 when he moved to Port Aven to paint, he established even more connections and relationships to impressionism. There, in the artist’s haven, he met and was inspired by Van Gogh, Seurat and Degas. Soon, he began to adopt his own unique and independent style. His approach would come to be greatly influenced by the time that he spent in Panama, but perhaps most importantly, his experiences in Tahiti were the catalysts that truly defined his personal style. Despite several trips to France, notably during one visit to Arles to visit with Van Gogh (this visit was cut short due to an ‘ear incident’) Gauguin lived out the rest of his life in Tahiti. Staying in the capital, he quickly relocated to a more remote part of the island. From 1891 to 1904, with only a short period away from the South Pacific Paul, Gauguin lived and finally died in Tahiti. He passed away on Hiva Oa Island in the Marquesas, due to a drug related heart attack.

His greatest works are considered those done of the Polynesian women and lifestyle that dominated his paintings toward the twilight of his life; Women of Tahiti, When are you Getting Married, and The Market are all excellent examples. His use of bright colors and local scenes show that Paul Gauguin’s artwork is inextricably tied to the tenants of impressionism.

Margaret McGuire, 2004

Paul Gauguin was born in Paris as the son of a journalist and a Peruvian mother. When the family had to leave France for political reasons, Paul's father died during the sea voyage to Peru. And Paul was nineteen years old, when he lost his mother.

From Wealthy Banker to Poor Artist

Gauguin's early career was out of the normal. He first worked as a sailor for the French merchant fleet for six years. Then he turned to banking and became a successful stock-broker at the Paris stock-exchange.

In 1871 Paul Gauguin started to paint as a hobby. He had seen an exhibition of Impressionist paintings and was deeply impressed. The passion for painting should dominate his life for the good and for the bad. But he was still firmly rooted in his bourgois life and he had a solid job as a banker. In 1873 he married Mette Gad, a Danish from Copenhagn. He had five children with her.

With his good income as a stockbroker, Gauguin could afford to buy several paintings by Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and other Impressionists. His own artistic activities were restricted to painting over the weekends. Later he attended evening classes at the Colarossi Academy. He was assisted and influenced by Pissarro and later by Paul Cezanne. In 1876 a landscape painting by Gauguin was accepted for the Salon d'Automne. He was now 28 years old.

In 1883/1984 Gauguin's life changed dramatically. At the age of 35 Paul Gauguin gave up his bourgois life as a stockbroker and moved from Paris to Rouen. Financial difficulties of the company which employed him, may have made this step easier. His wife Mette, upset with her husbands plans, went back to her parents in Denmark. In 1884 he visited her and the children in Copenhagn but soon returned to France.

In 1885 Paul Gauguin separated from his wife and left his 5 children. The last ties with a bourgois life were cut off and from now on he led an unsteady life as a painter and printmaker.

Panama and Martinique

Gauguin first went to Pont-Aven in Brittany and joined a group of avant-garde artists for 6 months. Later he returned to Paris.

In 1887 he went to Panama to work for the Panama canal project. But he was dismissed after only two weeks. His next destination was Martinique. By that time Gauguin had developed an antipathy against the Western civilization. But he returned to Paris and Pont-Aven. There he saw better chances of making a living as an artist.

Painting with van Gogh

1988 was the year when Gauguin's painting style made a distinctive turn into what should become his trademark style - the use of bold, unrealistic colors, large flat areas and the use of mystic subjects. The painting The Yellow Christ is typical for this period. The influence of two-dimensional Japanese art is clearly visible. Everything Japanese was very en vogue towards the end of the nineteenth century and had an important influence on impressionist and post-impressionist painters.

Gauguin went to Arles in Southern France where he stayed and worked with van Gogh for two months. The two men first understood each other well. But soon conflicts and quarrels became frequent. It culminated in van Gogh's cutting of his own ear and his subsequent mental and nervous breakdown. After the incident Gauguin abruptly returned to Paris.

Tahiti

In 1891 Paul Gauguin could sell about thirty paintings. One of his clients was Edgar Degas. The money from these sales enabled him to sail to Tahiti in the South Sea. He lived in Papeete for two years in rather primitive conditions. During this period the artist created some of his finest paintings. He stayed in Tahiti for two years. In 1893 he returned to France.

But in April 1894 he sailed back to the South Sea. He spent his last five years in great poverty and in bad health as the result of a venereal disease. His financial situation was depressing. In 1897 he tried to commit suicide. But he continued to paint until his death in 1903 on the Marquesas Islands.

Three years after his death, in a retrospective show of his works at the Salon d'Automne the public finally recognized the outstanding importance of Paul Gauguin for the development of modern art. For him, it came too late.

Paul Gauguin Prints

With his predilection for "primitive" and exotic art, Gauguin discovered woodcuts as an interesting printmaking technique. After his return from his first voyage to the South Sea, he planned to publish a book, Noa Noa, about his experience in Tahiti. The book was never published, but Gauguin made a set of ten color woodcuts meant as illustrations.

After the Noa Noa set, Gauguin created his largest woodblock Manao tupapau. Back in the South Sea in Tahiti and from 1901 on the Marquesas Islands, Gauguin produced some thirty more woodcuts - mostly monotypes.

Literature source used for this Paul Gauguin biography

Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Post-Impressionist Prints", ISBN 0-87633-119-3