Paul Gauguin

stockbroker

Gauguin worked successfully as a stockbroker before giving it all up at over 30 to become a painter.

💡 Did you know? At almost 40 he gave up his secure profession.

Tahiti / South Seas

Most of his famous works were made there.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin sought a paradise far from civilisation in the South Seas: but found a reality shaped by colonialism.

colour by feeling (Symbolism)

In this he became a pioneer of modern art.

💡 Did you know? „How do you see these trees? Yellow? Then paint them yellow,“ Gauguin advised: colour should express feeling, not copy nature.

Vincent van Gogh

In 1888 Gauguin lived nine weeks with Van Gogh in Arles: the friendship ended in a quarrel, when Van Gogh cut off part of his ear.

💡 Did you know? Their quarrel ended in van Gogh's dramatic ear crisis.

Peru

He was born in Paris in 1848.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin spent part of his childhood in Peru: the exotic impressions shaped his later longing for distant lands.

1903 in the South Seas

Only after his death was his work highly valued.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin died in 1903 impoverished and ill in the Marquesas Islands; only afterwards did his paintings soar to fortunes.

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Around 1897: his great allegorical masterpiece from the South Seas.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin painted the monumental late work as a kind of testament: shortly before he had attempted suicide.

The Yellow Christ

Around 1889: bold colour fields, a key work of Symbolism.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin set the Crucifixion in the Breton countryside among peasant women: religion as a simple folk image.

When Will You Marry?

Painted around 1892.

💡 Did you know? In 2015 the picture reportedly sold for around 210 million dollars, for a time the highest price ever paid for a painting.

Tahitian Women on the Beach

Painted around 1890.

💡 Did you know? In flat forms and glowing colours Gauguin celebrated the life of Tahitian women.

Vision After the Sermon

Painted around 1888.

💡 Did you know? The vivid red ground on which Jacob wrestles the angel broke radically with true-to-life painting.

The Green Christ

Painted around 1889.

💡 Did you know? A Breton stone cross (calvary) inspired Gauguin to paint this picture.

Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers

Painted around 1888.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin painted his friend at work: Van Gogh said it made him look „mad.“

Ia Orana Maria

Painted around 1891.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin turned Mary and the angels into Tahitians: a Christian scene in South Seas dress.

Two Tahitian Women

Painted around 1899.

💡 Did you know? The dignified depiction deliberately recalls ancient statues and temple reliefs.

Oviri

Painted around 1894.

💡 Did you know? „Oviri“ (the Savage) is a ceramic figure so important to Gauguin that he wished it placed on his grave.

Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin (1848 to 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist painter, famous for his glowing, flat-patterned pictures from the South Seas.

💡 Did you know? Gauguin gave up a comfortable life as a stockbroker, and his family, to seek a „primitive“ life and a new kind of painting in the South Seas.