Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin was born on June 7, 1848 in Paris, but moved to Peru (his mother's native country) for several years. After returning to France when he was eighteen, Gauguin entered the merchant marine for a couple of years, then became a successful stockbroker, married a Danish wife and began fathering five children. After seeing an exhibition of impressionist paintings, he began to pai
...see more »nt as a hobby in 1871. He was influenced by Pissarro and Cezanne and took some art classes at the Colarossi Academy. When he was 28, his first painting was accepted for exhibition at Salon d'Automne.
Gauguin gave up the good life at age 35 when he moved to Rouen and began to paint. His wife and children left and went to her family in Denmark. He saw them briefly before a final break in 1885. He lived in rural Brittany except for some trips to Panama and Martinique, where he became part of an artists' group known as the school of Pont-Aven, under painter Emile Bernard. Here Gauguin began to adapt a less naturalistic style that he called synthetism. By 1888 his style had evolved to bold, flat, unrealistic colors with mystical creatures, a method that was inspired by medieval stained glass, indigenous art and Japanese prints, all of which were popular at that time. Gauguin spent two months during this time in Arles with his friend, the painter Vincent Van Gogh, who was attempting to start up an artists' colony in the south of France. The two ended up quarreling and Gauguin returned to Paris.
In financial ruin, Gauguin sailed for Tahiti and the South Seas in 1891, where he lived for the remainder of his life in great poverty. Some of his greatest paintings were done under the influence of this tropical setting and the Polynesian culture. Considered one of his masterpieces is the allegory, "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" painted after his attempted suicide in 1897. His painting is considered the beginning of the 20th century Fauvist style in modern art. Gauguin also did some woodcuts that he had planned to use to illustrate a book about his experiences in Tahiti called 'Noa Noa', however, it was never published. Some additional woodcuts were done in 1901 in the Marquesas Islands.
Gauguin received a small stipend from a Parisian art dealer that supported him until his death May 9, 1903 in the Marquesas Islands. Salon d'Automne, the gallery that had first shown one of his paintings, held a retrospective three years after his death in which the public acknowledged his great contributions to the world of modern art. Sadly, Gauguin didn't live to see this happen. His work can be seen in museums and galleries, private and corporate collections, and at retailers around the world.
Ironically, three of Gauguin's original artworks sold at auction in 2006 for a combined total of more than $62 million dollars (1/06, London, "Deux femmes - La chevelure fleurieI", $11m; 11/06, New York, "L'homme à la hache", from his Tahitian period, $36m at Christie's; 5/06, "Vase de fleurs et gourdeI", an 1886 work, $4m,).« see less
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