Paul Gauguin 1848-1903

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was born in Paris on 7 June, 1848. At the age of 17,

he became a sailor and spent the next three years voyaging between France and South America. His first known drawings were dated 1871. When he was in his late twenties, he started to study painting at the Colarossi Academy. His début in the Salon took place in 1876. He also exhibited paintings and sculptures with Impressionists and the Indépendents in 1879, 1880 and 1882. The works of the period are close to Impressionism; he was greatly influenced by Pissaro, who gave his advice generously, and later by Cezanne. But gradually Gauguin broke away from Impressionism and adopted a bolder style - radical simplifications of drawing, brilliant, pure, bright colors, an ornamental character of composition, and deliberate flatness of planes, the style, which he called “synthetic symbolism”. In 1891, he managed to organize a trip to Tahiti at the expense of the French government; there he started his autobiographical Noa Noa (published in 1897). He fell seriously ill, but despite this much and sent pictures to Paris, where he did not return until 1893. In 1894 he took a farewell visit to Copenhagen, where he left his wife in 1885 with their 5 children, and in 1895 left for Tahiti a second time. By that time, his health was irreparably ruined by alcohol and syphilis, depression and financial worries, in 1898 he even attempted suicide, nevertheless, Gauguin still painted numerous masterpieces. In 1901 he moved from Tahiti to Atuana on the Island of Dominique in the Marquesas, where his colors grew even more abundant and lush, and where he executed some pink and mauve paintings. In 1903, Gauguin was sentences to three-months in prison and fined 1,000 francs because of problems with the church and the colonial administration. Before he could begin his sentence he died, on the 8th of May at his home in Atuana.

The Seine at the Pont d'Iena, Snowy Weather. 1875

Jeunes Bretones au Bains 1886

Three Puppies 1888

Swineherd 1888

Alyscamps 1888

Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven. 1888

Vision after the Sermon; Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. 1888

Yellow Christ 1889

Self-portrait with Halo 1889

La Vita e la Morte 1889

Loulou 1890

Tahitian Women 1891

Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary) 1891

Fatata te miti (Near the Sea) 1892

The Burao Tree 1892

Manao tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch) 1892

Joyeuseté (Arearea) 1892

Woman Holding a Fruit 1893

Merahi metua no Tehamana (Ancestors of Tehamana) 1893

Self-Portrait 1893-1894

Mahana no atua (Day of The God) 1894

Paysannes Brettones 1894

Nave Nave Moe (Sacred Spring) 1894

Still Life with Teapot and Fruits 1896

Te arii vahine (The King's Wife) 1896

D'où venonsnous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous? (Where Do We come from? What Are We? Where Are We Going?) 1897

Tahitian Landscape 1899

The Call 1902

Girl with a Fan 1902

Self-Portrait

CM