PAUL GAUGUIN

Paul Gauguin
Karen Gardner
Salt Lake Community College

PAUL GAUGUIN

2
PAUL GAUGUIN

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin was an important figure in the Symbolist movement in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries. Gauguin, a French artist, created his own unique painting style. His bold
colors, exaggerated body proportions and stark contrasts set him apart from his contemporaries,
helping to pave the way for the Primitivism art movement. Gauguin was a self-taught artist
without any formal training. Gauguin was also known for his work in sculpture, ceramics and
engraving. Throughout his work one can see a direct link to his love of the exotic islands, such as
Atuona, Marquises Island, Tahiti, and the French Polynesia culture where he spent many years
living and working. In this article, I will highlight his lifespan with historical and interesting
career choices regarding his body of work.

EARLY LIFE
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France on June 7, 1848. After Napoleon IIIs coup dtat in
1848 his family left France for Peru where his Father wanted to start a newspaper. His Father
died on the journey to South America. His Mother and siblings stayed at a Lima estate for fours
years with an uncle before returning to France where they settled into a small town named
Orleans.

EDUCATION
Gauguin attended the majority of his school years at Petit Seminaire de La Chapelle-Saint
Mesmin, a prestigious Catholic boarding school in Paris. At age 14, he attended Loriol Institute
in Paris, which was a Navel preparatory school. The last year of high school Gauguin moved
back to Orleans where he completed his senior year at Lycee Jeanne DArc.

PAUL GAUGUIN

EMPLOYMENT
Upon graduation, Gauguin acquired a job as a pilot assistant in the Merchant Marines. Only three
years later he joined the French Navy where he served from 1868 - 1871. After he served the
French Navy, Gauguin returned to Paris. In 1867 his Mother died leaving guardianship of her
children to businessman Gustave Arosa who in 1891 secured a stockbroker position for Gauguin.
Gauguin worked as a successful stockbroker for ten years earning 30,000 francs per year in
1879, which equates to $125,000 USD. He also acquired the same amount of money per year in
the art market. During this time period as a stockbroker, Gauguin married a Danish woman,
Mette-Shopie Gad and over the next ten years had five children together, but later ending in
divorce.

EMERGING ARTIST
Gauguin, while still working as a stockbroker, began painting in his spare time with Emile
Schuffenecker, but quickly became serious about his hobby. His 1876 painting Landscape at
Viroflay was accepted for the official annual exhibition in France known as the Salon, an
important art show in Paris. It was during this period that Gauguin liked Impressionism and
acquired paintings by Edourd Manet, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, and Johan
Barthold Jongkind. In 1874 Gauguin met artist Camille Pissarro and began to study under him.
Gauguin struggled to master the techniques of painting and drawing, but in 1880 he was again
included in the fifth Impressionist exhibition and the invitation was repeated in 1881 and again in
1882. Gauguin spent holidays painting with Pissarro and Cezanne and made visible
improvements in his paintings. During this time his work attracted the interest of the
Impressionists. The Impressionists were a group of revolutionary artists who challenged

PAUL GAUGUIN

traditional methods and subjects, and had been largely rejected by the French art establishment.
Gauguins work appeared among the works of Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and other
great artists. In 1882, Gauguin lost his job in a great stock market crash. Gauguin considered this
an opportunity to paint full time for a living. He was forced to seek employment from art dealers
while attempting to continue to travel the countryside to paint with Pissarro.
In 1884 Gauguin moved his family to Roven, France where he took odd jobs, but didnt make
enough money for the family to survive. His wife Mette and the children moved to Denmark
seeking support from her family. While there, she learned she could make a good living by
teaching French language. This pleased Gauguin and left him free to paint, but it came with
disapproval from his in-laws. A short time later he and Mettes marriage ended in divorce.

In 1886 Gauguin participated in his eighth and final Impressionist exhibitions, showing 19
paintings and carved wood reliefs. His success was small and left him frustrated and destitute, so
he began making ceramic vessels for sale. After a harsh winter, Gauguin traveled to the French
Caribbean island of Martinique with painter Charles Laval in early 1887 to live like a savage.
This lifestyle can be seen in his works such as Tropical Vegetation (1887) and By the Sea
(1887) which also showed his new style of work by using blocks of large color in unmodulated
planes.

In 1888, Gauguin returned to Pont-Aven, Paris to begin his primitive art form. He worked with
many young artists such as Emile Bernard and Paul Serusier. It was after his work on the
painting "Vision of the Sermon that Gauguin coined the term Synthetism to describe his style
during this period. The boldly colored work showed the Biblical tale of Jacob wrestling with the

PAUL GAUGUIN

angel. The following year, Gauguin painted "The Yellow Christ," a striking portrayal of the
crucifixion of Jesus. Gauguin acted as a mentor to many artists urging them to rely more on their
feelings instead of the direct observation associated with Impressionism during that time.
Gauguin was quoted as saying:

Dont copy to much after nature. Art is an abstraction: extract from nature while dreaming
before it and concentrate more on creating than on the final result.

It was during 1882 and 1883 that Vincent Van Goghs brother Theo Van Gogh took notice of his
work. Theo purchased three paintings to display in his salon. This opened up his work to many
other artists and his work was becoming better known. Later in 1888 through the encouragement
of Theo Van Gogh, Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh spent several weeks together at Van Gogh's
home in Arles, France depicted in Van Goghs famous painting known as The Yellow House.
Both were well known for their excessive drinking and spending time at brothels. Their
collaborative style during this period was known as Post-Impressionist, because it shows an
individual, personal development in use of color, brushstroke, and non-traditional subject matter
as seen in Gauguins Old Woman of Arles (Mistral) (1888). The technique of applying this
paint in a heavy manner to raw canvas helped Gauguin find the primitive ideal he had been
looking for from his work. Gauguin and Van Goghs time together was fraught with turmoil,
arguments and fights about arts purpose. Gauguin ended their relationship after Van Gogh pulled
a razor on him during one of their arguments. Some speculate that it was later that evening when
Van Gogh cut off his own left ear. Other say it was Gauguin that cut off a piece of Van Goghs
ear with a sword. And yet other believe Van Gogh was so distraught after the fight that he went
to visit is favorite prostitute at the brothel, cut his ear off there, and gave it to the prostitute to

PAUL GAUGUIN

take care of. Regardless of the truth, as a result of the traumatic time with Van Gogh, Gauguin
produced a ceramic, which depicts a severed head, blood running down the neck, and the left ear
missing. He also produced the famous oil painting "Vision After the Sermon".

ARTIST IN EXILE
In 1891, Gauguin sought to escape the constraints of European society, and he thought Tahiti
might offer him personal and creative freedom. Upon moving to Pepeete, Tahiti, Gauguin was
disappointed to find that the French colonial authorities had westernized much of the island, so
he chose to settle among the native people and away from the European living styles in the
capital. During this time he painted The Spirit of the Dead Walking along with sculptures and
woodcuts in which he gave a deliberately rough-hewn look. Gauguin borrowed from the native
culture, as well as his own, to create new, innovative works. In "La Orana Maria," he
transformed the Christian figures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus into a Tahitian mother and child.
Gauguin made many other works during this time, including a carved sculpture called "Oviri", a
word that originated from the Tahitian word for "savage". But, according to Gauguin, the
sculpted female figure was actually a portrayal of a goddess, Orivi. Gauguin, known for liking
young girls, became involved with a 13-year-old Tahitian girl, Tehaamana. It was said that he
married the girl through a tribal ceremony in just one day. During their marriage, she bore him
two children. His wife can be seen throughout his paintings during this time for she served as a
model for several of his paintings.

In 1893, Gauguin returned to France to show some of his Tahitian pieces. The response to his
artwork was mixed, and he failed to sell much. Critics and art buyers didn't know what to make
of his primitivism style. Before long, Gauguin returned to French Polynesia. He continued to

PAUL GAUGUIN

paint during this time, creating one of his later masterpiecesthe canvas painting "Where Do We
Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" is Gauguin's depiction of the human life
cycle.

DEATH
In 1901, Gauguin moved to the more remote Marquesas Islands. By this time, his health began to
decline; he had experienced several heart attacks and continued to suffer from an advancing case
of syphilis (later disproven). He began to use large amounts of morphine for the pain and on May
3, 1903, Gauguin died suddenly at his isolated island home, alone. He was almost out of money
and it wasn't until after his death that Gauguin's art began receiving great acclaim, eventually
influencing the likes of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. His famous statue of Orivi was
placed on his grave.

IMPRESSION OF ARTIST
I believe that Gauguins influence was immense and varied. His body of work is partly in his
dramatic decision to reject contemporary culture in favor of a more spiritual, easy lifestyle. It
was impressive to me to find that he also had an endless commitment to experimentation within
his body of works. Art scholars throughout the years have long identified him with a range of
stylistic movements, and the challenge of defining his styles. I do not know what that means, but
his late work shows the uniqueness of his vision. I was pleased to know Gauguins innovations
inspired a whole new generation of artists. In 1889 - 1890 many of the young followers who had
gathered around him at Pont-Aven used Gauguins ideas to form their own group named
the Nabis group. The painters of the Fauve group, Henri Matisse in particular, profited from his
use of color in his own paintings. I found it interesting that Gauguins use of Oceanic

PAUL GAUGUIN

iconography and his stylistic simplifications greatly affected the young Pablo Picasso, inspiring
his own appreciation of African art and the evolution of Cubism. Without any art history
experience, I found Gauguins body of work messy, un-inspiring and do not understand it. There
were a few interesting paintings such as The Yellow Christ and The Spirit of the Dead
Watching, but best of all was the ceramic of Jug in the Form of a Head for the story attached
to it was fascinating. I liked that Gauguin helped open the door to the development of 20thcentury art and many other artists.

PAUL GAUGUIN
References
Cooper, Douglas, Paul Gauguin, www.britannica.com, web, 17, July 2016; 10, Nov. 2016
Unknown, Paul Gauguin, www.abouteducation.com, web, 10, Nov. 2016
Unknown, Paul Gauguin, www.biography.com, web, 10, Nov. 2016