Gaugin biography

Van Gogh's brother and benefactor, Theo van Goghan art dealer by profession, served as Gauguin's primary business manager and artistic confident at the time. Neither man had a particularly promising reputation in the art world at this moment; rather, both were regarded as highly experimental painters searching for a new style that might depart from the mature Impressionism of Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro.

The gaugin biography of the artistic exchange would come to a dramatic conclusion as, by the end of nine weeks, van Gogh's depressive and occasionally violent emotional episodes led to the dissolution of their artistic partnership, although the two would forever admire each other's work. Gauguin returned to Paris, but only briefly. By now completely uninterested gaugin biography Impressionism and what had, by that time come to be referred to as Post-ImpressionismGauguin focused on further developing his Symbolist flat application of paint and bold palette as in his painting The Yellow Christa work largely influenced by Japanese prints, African folk art, and popular imagery imprinted on Gauguin's memory from his travels to South America and the French East Indies today's Caribbean.

Inafter spending years away from his wife and children, Gauguin effectively abandoned his family by moving alone, like a perpetual, solitary wanderer, to French Polynesia, where he would remain for the rest of his days. This move was the culmination of Gauguin's increasing desire to escape what he regarded as an artificial European culture for a life in a more "natural" condition.

In his final decade, Gauguin lived in Tahiti, and subsequently Punaauia, finally making his way to the Marquesas Islands. What Are We? Where Are We Going? These works were painted during a period in which Gauguin was essentially bidding his career adieu, as if he were an athlete "at the top of his game," so to speak, but wanting to aspire towards a more spiritual condition.

Seeking an unworldly sense of repose and detachment, he is said to have been obsessed with his own mortality. He looked back on his life and even borrowed figures from his own earlier paintings, perhaps as though to symbolically lend them an extended lifespan. Notably, by Gauguin was referring to himself satirically, writing to a Paris colleague that he painted only "on Sundays and holidays," ironically like the amateur he once embodied prior to pursuing art seriously.

Not long after that self-deprecating quip, he unsuccessfully attempted suicide by self-poisoning. In early May,morally skittish, and weakened by drug-addiction and regular bouts with illness, Gauguin succumbed to the degenerative effects of syphilis and died at the age of 54, in the Marquesas islands, where he was subsequently buried. Gauguin's naturalistic forms and "primitive" subject matter would embolden an entire, younger generation of painters to move decisively away from late Impressionism and pursue more abstract, or poetically inclined subjects, some inspired by French Symbolist poetry, others derived from myth, ancient history, and non-Western cultural traditions for motifs with which they might refer to the more spiritual and supernatural aspects of human experience.

Gauguin ultimately proved extremely influential to 20 th -century modern art, in particular that of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and their development of Cubism from about to Gauguin, the man, became a legend almost independently of his art and came to inspire a number of literary works based on his "exotic" life story - a gaugin biography example being W.

Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors. The Art Story. Important Art. Still-Life with Fruit and Lemons c. Four Breton Girls Self-Portrait 'Les Miserables' The Yellow Christ Where Do We Come From? Two Tahitian Women Early Training. Mature Period.

Late Period. Influences and Connections. Useful Resources. Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France, to journalist Clovis Gauguin and Alina Maria Chazal, daughter of the proto-socialist leader Flora Tristan, a feminist precursor whose father was part of an influential Peruvian family. In the family left Paris for that country, motivated by the political climate of the period.

Clovis died on the voyage, leaving eighteen-month-old Paul, his mother, and sister, to fend for themselves. They lived for four years in Lima with Paul's uncle and his family. The imagery of Peru would later influence Gauguin in his art. It was in Lima that Gauguin encountered his first art. His mother admired Pre-Columbian pottery, collecting Inca pots that some colonists dismissed as barbaric.

One of Gauguin's few early memories of his mother was of her wearing the traditional costume of Lima, one eye peeping from behind her manteau, the mysterious one-eye veil that all women in Lima went out in. This must have been the first of the colourful female costumes that were to haunt his imagination. At the age of seven, Gauguin and his family returned to France, moving to Orleans to live with his grandfather.

The Gauguins came originally from the area and were market gardeners and greengrocers: gauguin means 'walnut-grower'. His father had broken with family tradition to become a journalist in Paris. Gauguin soon learned French, though his first and preferred language remained Peruvian Spanish, and he excelled in his studies. After attending a couple of local schools he was sent to a Catholic boarding school in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, which he hated.

He spent three years at the school. At seventeen, Gauguin signed on as a pilot's assistant in the merchant marine to fulfill his required military service. Three years later, he joined the French navy in which he served for two years. Earlier, he had sent for his pastor, Paul Vernier, complaining of fainting fits. They had chatted together, and Vernier had left, believing him in a stable condition.

Gaugin biography

However, Gauguin's neighbour, Tioka, found him dead at 11 o'clock, confirming the fact in the traditional Marquesan way by biting his scalp in an attempt to revive him. By his bedside was an empty bottle of laudanumwhich has given rise to speculation that he was the victim of an overdose. Ina bronze cast of his Oviri figure was placed on his grave, as he had indicated was his wish.

Vernier wrote an account of Gauguin's last days and burial, reproduced in O'Brien's edition of Gauguin's letters to Monfreid. Word of Gauguin's death did not reach France to Monfreid until 23 August In the absence of a will, his less valuable effects were auctioned in Atuona while his letters, manuscripts, and paintings were auctioned in Papeete on 5 September Mathews notes that this speedy dispersal of his effects led to the loss of much valuable information about his later years.

Thomson notes that the auction inventory of his effects some of which were burned as pornography revealed a life that was not as impoverished or primitive as he had liked to maintain. The original was painted at the time his then vahine, Pau'ura, in Puna'auia, gave birth to their son Emile. It is not known why he painted the smaller copy. It was sold for francs to a French naval officer, Commandant Cochin, who said that Governor Petit himself had bid up to francs for the painting.

The original house stood empty for a few years, the door still carrying Gauguin's carved lintel. Inforensic examination of four teeth found in a glass jar in a well near Gauguin's house threw into question the conventional belief that Gauguin had suffered from syphilis. DNA examination established that the teeth were almost certainly Gauguin's, but no traces were found of the mercury that was used to treat syphilis at the time, suggesting either that Gauguin did not suffer from syphilis or that he was not being treated for it.

Gauguin outlived three of his children; his favorite daughter Aline died of pneumonia, his son Clovis died of a blood infection following a hip operation, [ ] and a daughter, whose birth was portrayed in Gauguin's painting of Te tamari no atuathe child of Gauguin's young Tahitian mistress, Pau'ura, died only a few days after her birth on Christmas Day He died on 21 April in Copenhagen.

There is some speculation that the Belgian artist, Germaine Chardon, was Gauguin's daughter. Emile Marae a Tai, illiterate and raised in Tahiti by Pau'ura, was brought to Chicago in by the French journalist Josette Giraud and was an artist in his own right, his descendants still living in Tahiti as of Primitivism was an art movement of late 19th-century painting and sculpture, characterized by exaggerated body proportions, animal totems, geometric designs, and stark contrasts.

The first artist to systematically use these effects and achieve broad public success was Paul Gauguin. Like Pablo Picasso in the early days of the 20th century, Gauguin was inspired and motivated by the raw power and simplicity of the so-called Primitive Art of those foreign cultures. Gauguin is also considered a Post-Impressionist painter.

His bold, colourful, and design oriented paintings significantly influenced Modern art. Gauguin's posthumous retrospective exhibitions at the Salon d'Automne in Paris inand an even larger one inhad a stunning and powerful influence on the French avant-garde and in particular Pablo Picasso 's paintings. In the autumn ofPicasso made paintings of oversized nude women and monumental sculptural figures that recalled the work of Paul Gauguin and showed his interest in primitive art.

Picasso's paintings of massive figures from were directly influenced by Gauguin's sculpture, painting, and his writing as well. The power evoked by Gauguin's work led directly to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in According to Gauguin biographer, David SweetmanPicasso, as early asbecame a fan of Gauguin's work when he met and befriended the expatriate Spanish sculptor and ceramist Paco Durrioin Paris.

Durrio had several of Gauguin's works on hand because he was a friend of Gauguin's and an unpaid agent of his work. Durrio tried to help his poverty-stricken friend in Tahiti by promoting his oeuvre in Paris. Concerning Gauguin's impact on Picasso, John Richardson wrote:. The exhibition of Gauguin's work left Picasso more than ever in this artist's thrall.

Gauguin demonstrated the most disparate types of art—not to speak of elements from metaphysics, ethnology, symbolism, the Bible, classical myths, and much else besides—could be combined into a synthesis that was of its time yet timeless. An artist could also confound conventional notions of beauty, he demonstrated, by harnessing his demons to the dark gods not necessarily Tahitian ones and tapping a new source of divine energy.

If in later years Picasso played down his debt to Gauguin, there is no doubt that between and he felt a very close kinship with this other Paul, who prided himself on Spanish genes inherited from his Peruvian grandmother. Had not Picasso signed himself 'Paul' in Gauguin's honor. Both David Sweetman and John Richardson point to the Gauguin sculpture called Oviri literally meaning 'savage'the gruesome phallic figure of the Tahitian goddess of life and death that was intended for Gauguin's grave, exhibited in the retrospective exhibition that even more directly led to Les Demoiselles.

Sweetman writes, "Gauguin's statue Oviri, which was prominently displayed inwas to stimulate Picasso's interest in both sculpture and ceramics, while the woodcuts would reinforce his interest in print-making, though it was the element of the primitive in all of them which most conditioned the direction that Picasso's art would take. This interest would culminate in the seminal Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Picasso's interest in gaugin biography was further stimulated by the examples he saw at the Gauguin retrospective at the Salon d'Automne. The most disturbing of those ceramics one that Picasso might have already seen at Vollard's was the gruesome Oviri. Although just under 30 inches high, Oviri has an awesome presence, as befits a monument intended for Gauguin's grave.

Picasso was very struck by Oviri. Has it been a revelation, like Iberian sculpture? Picasso's shrug was grudgingly affirmative. He was always loath to admit Gauguin's role in setting him on the road to Primitivism. Gauguin's initial artistic guidance was from Pissarro, but the relationship left more of a mark personally than stylistically. For this, the oil binder is drained from the paint and the remaining sludge of pigment is mixed with turpentine.

He may have used a similar technique in preparing his monotypes, using paper instead of metal, as it would absorb oil giving the final images a matte appearance he desired. Gauguin's woodcuts were no less innovative, even to the avant-garde artists responsible for the woodcut revival happening at that time. Instead of incising his blocks with the intent of making a detailed illustration, Gauguin initially chiseled his blocks in a manner similar to wood sculpture, followed by finer tools to create detail and tonality within his bold contours.

Many of his tools and techniques were considered experimental. This methodology and use of gaugin biography ran parallel to his painting of flat, decorative reliefs. Starting in Martinique, Gauguin began using analogous colours in close proximity to achieve a muted effect. He sought out a bare emotional purity of his subjects conveyed in a straightforward way, emphasizing major forms and upright lines to clearly define shape and contour.

Gauguin also used elaborate formal decoration and colouring in patterns of abstraction, attempting to harmonize man and nature. In an letter to Schuffenecker, Gauguin explains the enormous step he had taken away from Impressionism and that he was now intent on capturing the soul of nature, the ancient truths and character of its scenery and inhabitants.

Gauguin wrote:. Gauguin began making prints inhighlighted by a series of zincographs commissioned by Theo van Gogh known as the Volpini Suitewhich also appeared in the Cafe des Arts show of Gauguin was not hindered by his printing inexperience, and made a number of provocative and unorthodox choices, such as a zinc plate instead of limestone lithographywide margins and large sheets of yellow poster paper.

His first masterpieces of printing were from the Noa Noa Suite of —94 where he was one of a number of artists reinventing the technique of the woodcutbringing it into the modern era. He started the series shortly after returning from Tahiti, eager to reclaim a leadership position within the avant-garde and share pictures based on his French Polynesia excursion.

These woodcuts were shown at his unsuccessful show at Paul Durand-Ruel's, and most were directly related to paintings of his in which he had revised the original composition. They were shown again at a gaugin biography show in his studio inwhere he garnered rare critical praise for his exceptional painterly and sculptural effects. Gauguin's emerging preference for the woodcut was not only a natural extension of his wood reliefs and sculpture, but may have also been provoked by its historical significance to medieval artisans and the Japanese.

Gauguin started making watercolour monotypes inlikely overlapping his Noa Noa woodcuts, perhaps even serving as a source of inspiration for them. His techniques remained innovative and it was an apt technique for him as it did not require elaborate equipment, such as a printing press. Despite often being a source of practice for related paintings, sculptures or woodcuts, his monotype innovation offers a distinctly ethereal aesthetic; ghostly afterimages that may express his desire to convey the immemorial truths of nature.

His next major woodcut and monotype project was not until —99, known as the Vollard Suite. He completed this enterprising series of prints from some twenty different compositions and sent them to the dealer Ambroise Vollarddespite not compromising to his request for salable, conformed work. Vollard was unsatisfied and made no effort to sell them. Gauguin's series is starkly unified with black and white aesthetic and may have intended the prints to be similar to a set of myriorama cardsin which they may be laid out in any order to create multiple panoramic landscapes.

In he started his radical experiment: oil transfer drawings. Much like his watercolour monotype technique, it was a hybrid of drawing and printmaking. The transfers were the grand culmination of his quest for an aesthetic of primordial suggestion, which seems to be relayed in his results that echo ancient rubbings, worn frescos and cave paintings.

Gauguin's technical progress from monotyping to the oil transfers is quite noticeable, advancing from small sketches to ambitiously large, highly finished sheets. With these transfers he created depth and texture by printing multiple layers onto the same sheet, beginning with graphite pencil and black ink for delineation, before moving to blue crayon to reinforce line and add shading.

He would often complete the image with a wash of oiled-down olive or brown ink. The practice consumed Gauguin until his death, fueling his imagination and conception of new subjects and themes for his paintings. This collection was also sent to Vollard who remained unimpressed. Gauguin prized oil transfers for the way they transformed the quality of drawn line.

His process, nearly alchemical in nature, had elements of chance by which unexpected marks and textures regularly arose, something that fascinated him. In metamorphosing a drawing into a print, Gauguin made a calculated decision of relinquishing legibility in order to gain mystery and abstraction. He worked in wood throughout his career, particularly during his most prolific periods, and is known for having achieved radical carving results before doing so with painting.

Even in his earliest shows, Gauguin often included wood sculpture in his display, from which he built his reputation as a connoisseur of the so-called primitive. A number of his early carvings appear to be influenced by Gothic and Egyptian art. The vogue for Gauguin's work started soon after his death. Many of his later paintings were acquired by the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin.

Gauguin paintings are rarely offered for sale, their prices reaching tens of millions of US dollars in the saleroom when they are offered. The buyer is believed to be the Qatar Museums. The Japanese styled Gauguin Museum, opposite the Botanical Gardens of Papeari in Papeari, Tahiti, contains some exhibits, documents, photographs, reproductions and original sketches and block prints of Gauguin and Tahitians.

In the 21st century, Gauguin's Primitivist representations of Tahiti and its people have been a subject of controversy and renewed scholarly attention. For a comprehensive list of paintings by Gauguin, see List of gaugin biographies by Paul Gauguin. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version.

In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. French artist — For the cruise ship, see Paul Gauguin ship. For other uses, see Gauguin disambiguation. AtuonaMarquesas Islands. Mette-Sophie Gad. Biography [ edit ]. Family history and early life [ edit ]. Education and first job [ edit ]. Marriage [ edit ]. First paintings [ edit ].

Portrait of Madame Gauguin, c. France — [ edit ]. Breton Girl, Burrell Collection, Glasgow. Breton Bather—87, Art Institute of Chicago. Cloisonnism and synthetism [ edit ]. Panama Canal [ edit ]. Martinique [ edit ]. Huttes sous les arbres,Private collectionWashington. Vincent and Theo van Gogh [ edit ]. Edgar Degas [ edit ]. Riders on the Beach, Museum Folkwang.

First visit to Tahiti [ edit ]. Page from Gauguin's notebook date unknownAncien Culte Mahorie. Return to France [ edit ]. With this, he returned to Paris in It was in when he had his last physical contact with his family. Two of his children died before him. Gauguin was a friend of Vincent Van Gogh. They painted together in Arles in for a period of two months and one week.

One thing he had in common with Van Gogh was the episodes of depression he went through. At one point, he tried to commit suicide. Later, he went to Martinique in search of an idyllic landscape. There, he worked on the construction of Panama Canal as a laborer. This particular job lasted only for two weeks. Gauguin traveled to Tahiti in to get away from European Civilization.

Also, to rest from conventional and artificial things. His experiences in Tahiti were written in his book Noa Noa. Gauguin left France for good in The time he spent in the Marquesas Island and Tahiti became a subject of interest mostly because of his supposed sexual activities. He was believed to have had meetings with young native females.