Biography Of Paul Gauguin: Questioning Aboriginal Inspiration

Check out the biography of Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin, better known as Paul Gauguin, a prominent French artist . His work has been classified as post-impressionist, synthetic and symbolist.

As a post-impressionist artist, his work went beyond painting; he was also a sculptor, printer and writer . However, his work only gained importance after his death.

The artist is particularly known for his creative relationship with Vincent van Gogh . In addition, he is known to have abandoned his family, opting for a self-imposed exile in Tahiti, French Polynesia.

Gauguin, famous for his bold colors, streamlined shapes and strong lines, had no formal artistic training . The painter followed his own vision against the artistic conventions of the time. His artistic experiments influenced many avant-garde developments in the early 20th century.

Childhood and youth from the biography of Paul Gauguin

Paul was born on June 7, 1848 in Paris, France, into a wealthy family . His parents were Clovis Gauguin and Aline Maria Chazal. His father was a journalist.

The maternal family deserves special mention: her mother was the daughter of the feminist and protosocialist leader Flora Tristán . His maternal grandfather, of Aragonese descent, belonged to an influential Peruvian family.

In 1849, his father’s political activities forced the family into exile, fleeing from Louis Napoleon Bonaparte . The Gauguin family left for Peru on a journey marked by tragedy, as their father died during the trip. Gauguin’s mother and her two children went to live with the painter’s great-uncle.

In the city of Lima, he would live in the aristocratic mansion of the Tristán and Moscoso family for several years . Therefore, Spanish was their first language.

His stay in Peru marked him throughout his life, to the point where he himself called himself a ‘Peruvian savage’. The family returned to France when Paul Gauguin was seven .

For three years he was at the Catholic boarding school of La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin. He served as a sailor at age 17 and later joined the French navy, which he served for two years.

the painter’s career

Following the biography of Paul Gauguin, we see that in 1871, at age 23, he returned to Paris . He got a job as a stockbroker and became a successful businessman. At this stage he lived in prosperity.

He began painting as a hobby in 1873. He  became a great friend of the artist Camille Pissarro, and his work aroused the interest of the Impressionists.

The Impressionists were a group of revolutionary artists who challenged traditional methods and themes, although most were rejected by French art scholars.

Gauguin was invited to exhibit his works at the group’s fourth exhibition in 1879.  Thus, his work appeared among the works of Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and other great artists.

Over time, he became disillusioned with impressionism and traditional European painting and became intrigued by the art of Africa and Asia . During that time in Europe, art from other cultures was in vogue.

In 1889, his art evolved into  Cloisonism after being influenced by folk art and Japanese art . That year he produced his most famous work:  The Yellow Christ .

Desiring to escape European society, Paul Gauguin traveled to Tahiti in 1891 . There, he hoped to explore his creative freedom. During this period, he painted By  the  Sea  and  Ave  Maria , along with other paintings depicting Tahitian life.

He returned to France in 1893 and painted  God’s Day in 1894, a work in which he portrayed the Tahitian religion . Later, he moved to Punaauia, on the west coast of the island of Tahiti, in 1897; in this place he painted Where did we come from? What are we? Where will we go?.

Main works

His painting  The Yellow Christ is undoubtedly considered a key work of symbolism . It depicts the crucifixion of Christ in 19th-century France. For its development, he used bold lines and vivid colors like red and green in the background, which contrasted with the yellow he used to capture Christ.

The painting Where do we come from? What are we? Where will we go? it encompasses the existential questions that arise in the minds of human beings and to which we seek spiritual answers. The painting is marked by thick brushstrokes and bold colors and is considered a masterpiece of the post-impressionist pictorial movement .

In 1891, Gauguin borrowed the culture around him and managed to create truly innovative works . In The Orana Maria , he represented in a Tahitian mother and son the Christian figures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

According to several art historians, the work of Paul Gauguin was very inspiring for the painters who later developed Cubism. Pablo Picasso, in particular, admired Gauguin’s thick brushstrokes.

Biography of Paul Gauguin: Personal Life and Legacy

At 25, he married the Danish Mette Sophie Gad, an amateur painter . With her, he had 5 children over the next 10 years. After losing their job at the stock exchange in 1884, the family moved to Denmark.

There he tried to make a living working as a salesman. However, this effort was unsuccessful and his wife had to become responsible for the main breadwinner of the family.

Paul Gauguin decided to abandon his wife and children and devote himself entirely to painting . From that moment on, his path became a veritable procession of misfortunes and vicissitudes. His long list of abandoned lovers and children also began.

In 1886 he moved to the Brittany region, where he gained recognition in the community of young painters . In Pont-Aven, his unrequited love for the 17-year-old painter Madeleine Bernard influenced his decision to travel to Arles at the invitation of Van Gogh.

Living with Van Gogh resulted in one of the darkest episodes in both painters’ lives. It is at this stage that the tragic event in which Van Gogh lost his ear took place. Gauguin was sometimes seen as the trigger for Van Gogh’s madness.

His encounters with lovers were continuous . So he impregnated another of his mistresses, Juliette Huet, whom he later abandoned.

Then began his adventure of going to Panama and the French Antilles . For a short period, he worked as a laborer for the Panama Canal Company.

Later, Paul Gauguin settled in Martinique in 1887. On the island, he produced his first works imbued with indigenism, which would later lead to his fame.

Paul Gauguin in Tahiti

In 1891, he moved to Tahiti, an island where he would later produce his most recognized work . He lived in Tahiti from 1891 to 1893 and again from 1895 until his death.

Around this time, he had a relationship with a 13-year-old girl, Teha’amana, who was sold by her own parents. With her, he had a daughter who also served as a model for his paintings.

After leaving her, Paul Gauguin had a multitude of lovers of similar ages or even younger . This trend towards pedophilia, at the time, generated a huge controversy.

In 1893, Gauguin returned to France to exhibit some of his Tahitian pieces . The response to his artwork was mixed and he failed to sell much.

Art critics and buyers didn’t know what to make of his primitive style . Before long, Gauguin returned to French Polynesia.

Financial precariousness was constant at this stage of his life. His painting was not understood or appreciated in his time.

Before leaving for Panama, he already suffered from tuberculosis as well as syphilis. Throughout his life, he suffered bouts of depression and alcohol dependence, and even attempted suicide on one occasion.

He died of a morphine overdose and heart attack in 1903, aged 54.

Recently, the biography of Paul Gauguin was represented in the film Gauguin, Journey to Tahiti , by Edouard Deluc. In the film, the little Indian girl who inspires several masterpieces, who in real life was only 13, is played by 17-year-old actress Tuhei Adams.