Paul Gauguin
Biography of French Impressionist/ Post-Impressionist Colourist Artist Who Influenced Cloisonism, Primitivism, Synthetism, Fauvism, Cubism.
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Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

A leading French exponent of Post-Impressionism and a key influence on the history of art at the beginning of the 20th century, Paul Gauguin strove to express his inner emotions on canvas, largely through the use of colour. His efforts helped to pave the way for Synthetism and Cloisonism (2-D style works featuring blocks of pure colour with black edging) as well as Primitivism (a form of tribal art style). Influenced initially by French Impressionism, Gauguin is best known for his mature works, painted in a primitive style, when he lived in the South Pacific. His most notable works include: The Vision after the Sermon, 1888 (National Gallery of Scotland); The Yellow Christ, 1889 (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York) and Where Do We Come From, What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Born in Paris, his father was a journalist and his mother was the daughter of the French socialist writer and activist Flora Tristan. In 1851 his family left Paris for Peru, motivated by political reasons and adventure. His father died on the voyage so his mother and sisters had to fend for themselves in the 4 years they stayed in Lima. The colours and imagery of Peru would later be strong influences in Gauguin's art. At the age of 7 the family returned to France, and moved to Orleans to live with his grandfather. At 17 he joined the navy and in 1871 he moved back to Paris and secured a job as a stockbroker. He married two years later, and his wife bore him five children in quick succession. Gauguin had been interested in art since childhood, and in his free time began painting. He was frequent visitor to art galleries and frequently bought works by emerging artists, at one time spending over 17,000 francs on works by Sisley, Pissarro, Manet and Monet. He visited the now famous, 1874 Impressionist exhibition in Paris and was so inspired he determined to become a full time artist.

Pissarro helped him in his early painting career and encouraged him to 'look for the nature that suits your temperament'. Pissarro introduced him to Cezanne, and Gauguin was so taken with the older artist's style that Cezanne began to fear that he would steal his ideas. All three worked together for some time at Pontoise. As he progressed in his art, Gauguin moved to his own studio and took part in the Impressionist exhibitions of 1881 and 1882. Oil paintings from this period include: Effect of Snow, 1879 (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest); Portrait of Gauguin's Daughter Aline, c.1879 (Private collection); Suzanne Sewing, 1880 (Ny Carlsberg-Glyptotek, Copenhagen); At the Window, 1882 (Hermitage, St. Petersburg); Bouquet, 1884 (Hermitage) and Cattle Drinking, 1885 (Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan).

In 1885, Gauguin abandoned his wife and family and went to live in Pont-Aven in Brittany. It was here that he forged a new style. No longer satisfied with the limits of Impressionism, he sought to express an interior state rather than just surface appearance. He and a group of avant-garde artists decided to flatten their painting, to make it appear 2-dimensional, thus reducing a view to its basic fundamentals. This style required working more from memory and internal images, rather than nature, and thus broke with Impressionist theory. It was called Synthetism. Gauguin's greatest innovation and contribution to fine art painting was his use of colour - he used it to express emotion rather than to reflect a true colour - this freedom allowed him to make the ground red, the sky green or yellow. Paintings from this period include: The Four Breton Girls, c.1886 (Neue Pinakothek, Munich); Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven, 1888 (The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC) and Vision after the Sermon; Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, 1888 (National Gallery of Scotland).

In 1888 he spent over two months with his friend Van Gogh, painting in Arles. Paintings from this period include: Night Café at Arles, 1888 (The Pushkin Museum of Fine Art); Women from Arles in the Public Garden, the Mistral, 1888 (Chicago Institute of Art) and Harvesting of Grapes at Arles, 1888 (Art Museum Ordrupgard, Copenhagen). Like his friend, Gauguin experienced severe bouts of depression and even tried to commit suicide. He felt restless, he thought that western art had become too imitative and lack symbolic depth. This drew him to African and Eastern art, which seemed full of symbolic meaning and did not rely on natural colours to express their meaning. It was an art of broad flat spaces and figures outlined in dark paint. Primitivism was characterised by exaggerated body proportions, animal totems, geometric designs and stark contrasts. He applied this method to his art, which can be seen in his works: The Schuffenecker Family, 1889 (Musee d'Orsay); Caricature Self-Portrait, 1889 (The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC); Self-Portrait with Yellow Christ, 1889 (Private collection); Eve. Don't Listen to the Liar, 1889 (Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas).

In 1891, in a bid to escape western urban values and 'everything that is artificial and conventional', he sailed for the island of Tahiti. He expected to find an unspoiled world, but Tahiti had already been colonized by Western missionaries, so instead he had to create the world he sought in his head. Over the next few years he produced progressively more primitive style paintings, woodcarvings and graphics, as he strove to express the mythology of island life. Well known paintings from this time include: Woman with a Flower, 1891 (Ny Carlsberg-Glyptotek); Brooding Woman, 1891 (The Worcester Art Museum); Tahitian Women On the Beach, 1891 (Musee d'Orsay); We Shall Not Go to Market Today, 1892 (Kunstmuseum Basel); Arearea, 1892 (Musee d'Orsay) and When Will You Marry?, 1892 (Kunstmuseum Basel). Six years later he moved to Punaauia, where he created one of his most famous painting's Where Do We Come From, What Are We? Where Are We Going?

He spent the remainder of his life in French Polynesia, where he died at the age of 54 from syphilis, his system weakened by alcohol and a dissipated lifestyle. He is buried in the Marquesas Islands, Polynesia. Although Gauguin died in relative poverty and obscurity, his works became popular soon after his death. The Russian collector Sergei Shchukin bought many of his works, which are now displayed in the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage. They rarely come up for sale, and if they do, they can sell for as much as $40 million. This reflects his powerful influence on early twentieth century art in general and on other famous artists in particular: for example, his influence on Henri Matisse and the Fauvism movement, on Delaunay, Kupka and the Orphism abstract art school, and on Pablo Picasso and the radical Cubism movement.

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