Portrait of Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin Painting Reproductions 5 of 8

1848-1903

French Post-Impressionist Painter

Paul Gauguin is a French post-impressionist painter (Paris, 1848 - Atuona, Marquesas Islands, 1903).

A traveller at heart, Paul Gauguin's artistic career was a transition between Impressionism and Symbolism. Through his forms and colors, he was a decisive influence on the Fauvist and Expressionist painters.

From his early childhood in Peru, Paul Gauguin retained his taste for the unfamiliar. In 1865 he joined the navy, but on the advice of his tutor Gustave Arosa (a collector of paintings) he left in 1871 to work for a Parisian securities broker.

Married in 1873 to the Danish Mette-Sophie Gadd, by whom he had five children, he painted on Sundays and attended the academy founded by the Italian Filippo Colarossi. Camille Pizarro, a friend of Arosa's, advised and encouraged him to participate in Impressionist exhibitions from 1879; he then invited him to work in Pontoise with Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin and Paul Cézanne, whose example encouraged Gauguin to break away from Impressionism.

In late 1883, driven out of the bourse by the economic crisis, Gauguin first tried to support himself by painting in Rouen, where Pissarro and Claude Monet maintained contacts with wealthy art lovers, before deciding to set up business in Denmark. He was unsuccessful and returned to Paris in 1885 without wife and children. His fate was preordained: for years he continued to dream of business, but painting became his life.

On his return from his first trip to Pont-Aven in 1886, Gauguin exhibited the paintings he had brought back, along with those from the Rouen and Denmark periods, with their rich, muted tones.

In the following year, during his stay in Martinique, where he tried his hand at planting, he painted discreetly pointillist canvases in which the exoticism and colour that his memories of Peru and his sea voyages had imprinted on his memory (Seashore) emerge.

Gauguin's second visit to Pont-Aven was in 1888. Long discussions with the young Emile Bernard gave rise to a new aesthetic that contrasted neo-impressionism with synthetism (pure colours laid flat, dark rings), of which Vision after the Sermon (1888) - or Jacob's Struggle with the Angel - is the most obvious work.

During this period Gauguin became a leader of the Symbolist school, and from November to December 1888 he spent a break in Arles with Vincent Van Gogh and produced a series of brilliant canvases ('Aliscamps'). Gauguin left Van Gogh after the latter suffered a severe attack of madness. La Belle Angèle (1889) and Le Christ vert (1889) reflect the plastic and moral problems of this period, which was followed by his first trip to Tahiti (1891-1893).

Paul Gauguin's life was divided between Europe and the tropics. It was Polynesia that gave him a new creative force, making him the first great artist to appreciate and study the arts we now call "primitive", and then hand over the keys to them to the West.

"I am going away to calm myself, to free myself from the influence of civilization," Gauguin declared before setting sail for Tahiti in the spring of 1891. "For this purpose I must immerse myself in the virgin nature [...] without any other care than to transmit, like a child, the conceptions of my brain by means of the primitive means of art alone, the only good, the only true ones."

In Tahiti, Gauguin discovered the relatively pristine world of his dreams (Femmes de Tahiti, 1891). But fearing both intrigue and oblivion, he returned to Paris as soon as he had enough new paintings to participate in an exhibition with Durand-Ruel.

After seeing his works, Stéphane Malarmé is astonished to find "so many mysteries in so much brilliance." Not only writers, including August Strindberg and Charles Morris, with whom he wrote his autobiography Noa-Noa (1897), but also musicians came to his studio.

However, financial success came slowly. He lost a lawsuit, there was a brawl in Concarneau where sailors taunted his companion Ana la Javan, and Gauguin, fed up with Europe, left for Tahiti in 1895.

In Polynesia, the confused religiosity of Breton works gave way to great myths (pleasure, fear, death) and massive forms in saturated colours. The joy of returning to one's roots floods the paintings of 1896 (Jours délicieux), and then grief creeps in (Nevermore, 1897).

Suffering and depressed by the news of his daughter Aline's death, Gauguin contemplates suicide. Where do we come from? What are we? Where Are We Going (1897) became his testament.

The renewed enthusiasm that followed his move to the village of Atuona on the island of Hiva-Oa in the Marquesas (1901) produced masterpieces that convey his sense of a paradisiacal universe (Contes barbares, 1902). Gauguin also created sculptures. But exhausted by illness, alcohol and constant disputes with local authorities, he died shortly before the age of 55.

182 Gauguin Paintings

The Meal, Bananas, 1891 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

The Meal, Bananas 1891

Oil Painting
$679
Canvas Print
$59.37
SKU: GAP-13060
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 73 x 92 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

Apatarao, 1893 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Apatarao 1893

Oil Painting
$462
Canvas Print
$66.11
SKU: GAP-13063
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 49 x 54 cm
New Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark

Ta Matete (We Shall Not Go to Market Today), 1892 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Ta Matete (We Shall Not Go to Market Today) 1892

Oil Painting
$628
Canvas Print
$60.32
SKU: GAP-13065
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 73 x 92 cm
Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland

Still Life with Fruits and Fan, 1888 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Still Life with Fruits and Fan 1888

Oil Painting
$486
Canvas Print
$76.21
SKU: GAP-13088
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 50 x 61 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

The Swineherd (Peasants with Pigs), 1888 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

The Swineherd (Peasants with Pigs) 1888

Oil Painting
$671
Canvas Print
$59.78
SKU: GAP-13089
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 73 x 93 cm
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, USA

Father Jean's Walk (The Red Roofs), 1886 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Father Jean's Walk (The Red Roofs) 1886

Oil Painting
$566
Canvas Print
$59.50
SKU: GAP-13090
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 81 x 65 cm
Public Collection

The Seine near the Pont de Jena, 1875 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

The Seine near the Pont de Jena 1875

Oil Painting
$548
Canvas Print
$52.49
SKU: GAP-13091
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 65 x 92.5 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

The Sleeping Child, 1884 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

The Sleeping Child 1884

Oil Painting
$494
Canvas Print
$63.78
SKU: GAP-13092
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 46 x 55.5 cm
Private Collection

Portrait of Madeleine Bernard, 1888 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Madeleine Bernard 1888

Oil Painting
$548
Canvas Print
$62.25
SKU: GAP-13093
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 72 x 58 cm
Musee des Beaux Arts, Grenoble, France

Green Christ, 1889 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Green Christ 1889

Oil Painting
$667
Canvas Print
$59.64
SKU: GAP-13094
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 92 x 73 cm
Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium

Seashore (Island of Martinique), 1887 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Seashore (Island of Martinique) 1887

Oil Painting
$461
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: GAP-13095
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 54 x 90 cm
New Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark

Self Portrait with Hat In the Background Manao Tupapau, c.1893/94 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Self Portrait with Hat In the Background Manao Tupapau c.1893/94

Oil Painting
$441
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: GAP-13096
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 46 x 38 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

Two Women, c.1901/02 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Two Women c.1901/02

Oil Painting
$650
Canvas Print
$59.37
SKU: GAP-13097
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 73.7 x 92.1 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

The Siesta, c.1892/94 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

The Siesta c.1892/94

Oil Painting
$640
Canvas Print
$57.44
SKU: GAP-13098
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 88.9 x 116.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Three Tahitian Women, 1896 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Three Tahitian Women 1896

Oil Painting
$494
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: GAP-13099
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 24.4 x 43.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

A Farm in Brittany, 1894 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

A Farm in Brittany 1894

Oil Painting
$642
Canvas Print
$60.19
SKU: GAP-13100
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 72.4 x 90.5 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Tahitian Landscape, n.d. by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Tahitian Landscape n.d.

Oil Painting
$449
Canvas Print
$54.97
SKU: GAP-13101
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 64.5 x 47.3 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Still Life, 1891 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Still Life 1891

Oil Painting
$390
Canvas Print
$49.87
SKU: GAP-13102
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 38.4 x 46.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Tahitian Women Bathing, 1892 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Tahitian Women Bathing 1892

Oil Painting
$657
Canvas Print
$60.05
SKU: GAP-13103
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 109.9 x 89.5 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Still Life with Flowers (Interior of the Artist's Apartment on Rue Carcel, Paris), n.d. by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Still Life with Flowers (Interior of the Artist's ... n.d.

Oil Painting
$717
Canvas Print
$57.85
SKU: GAP-13104
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: unknown
Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway

Breton Peasant Women, 1894 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Breton Peasant Women 1894

Oil Painting
$659
Canvas Print
$54.27
SKU: GAP-13105
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 66 x 92.5 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

Riders on the Beach, 1902 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Riders on the Beach 1902

Oil Painting
$485
Canvas Print
$65.96
SKU: GAP-13106
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 66 x 76 cm
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

Four Breton Women, 1886 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Four Breton Women 1886

Oil Painting
$702
Canvas Print
$60.46
SKU: GAP-13107
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 72 x 91 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Yellow Haystacks (Blond Harvest), 1889 by Gauguin | Painting Reproduction

Yellow Haystacks (Blond Harvest) 1889

Oil Painting
$606
Canvas Print
$58.13
SKU: GAP-13108
Paul Gauguin
Original Size: 73.5 x 92.5 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

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