Paul Gauguin
Summary
Paul Gauguin was a pivotal figure in the transition from Impressionism to Symbolism and modern art. Initially trained within the Impressionist circle, Gauguin soon rejected its emphasis on capturing everyday reality and fleeting light, instead developing a highly personal style focused on symbolic content, vivid colors, and flattened forms. His work was deeply influenced by non-Western “primitive” art from Africa, Asia, and Polynesia, reflecting his rejection of European conventions and his quest for a more spiritual, “natural” way of life. His travels to the South Pacific profoundly shaped his art and persona, making him one of the most romanticized and controversial figures in art history.
Childhood
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris to Clovis Gauguin, a journalist, and Alina Maria Chazal, granddaughter of the feminist activist Flora Tristan. Political instability forced the family to flee to Lima, Peru, when Gauguin was just three, where his father died during the Atlantic voyage. Gauguin spent his early years living with relatives in Lima before returning to France in 1855, settling in Orléans with his grandfather. His early education was conventional, and by seventeen, he served in the merchant marine, later joining the French Navy. After leaving the navy in 1872, he began a career as a stockbroker in Paris.
Early Training
After his mother died in 1867, Gauguin came under the guardianship of Gustave Arosa, a wealthy art collector who introduced him to Romantic and Realist painters such as Delacroix, Courbet, and Corot. Gauguin married Mette-Sophie Gad in 1873, and the couple lived in Copenhagen for a time with their five children. During this period, Gauguin collected Impressionist works and began painting in his spare time, adopting an Impressionist style influenced by Renoir, Monet, and Pissarro.
By the early 1880s, Gauguin participated in Impressionist exhibitions and developed friendships with key figures like Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne. However, after losing his stockbroker job in 1882, Gauguin committed more seriously to art, embracing a symbolic and decorative style during stays in Brittany. His time in Pont-Aven marked a decisive shift, as he began to use flat, vivid colors and simplified forms to evoke the spiritual essence of his subjects. His travels to Panama and Martinique further exposed him to “primitive” cultures and bold palettes that would influence his later work.
Mature Period
By the late 1880s, Gauguin’s distinctive style was emerging, marked by symbolic imagery, strong outlines, and luminous color fields. He developed a correspondence and friendship with Vincent van Gogh, sharing an intense, though ultimately fraught, artistic exchange. In 1888, the two painters lived together briefly in Arles, producing significant works but parting after van Gogh’s mental health crises.
After returning briefly to Paris, Gauguin fully abandoned Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. His painting The Yellow Christ (1889) exemplifies his mature style—incorporating influences from Japanese prints, African art, and his travels, this work highlights symbolic religious themes rendered in bold color and flat planes.
Late Period
In 1891, Gauguin left his wife and children behind to seek a more authentic life in French Polynesia, first Tahiti and later the Marquesas Islands. This move symbolized his rejection of European society and his desire for spiritual renewal through connection with “primitive” cultures. His Tahitian period produced iconic works like Tahitian Women on the Beach (1891), The Moon and the Earth (Hina tefatou) (1893), and Two Tahitian Women (1899). These paintings combine traditional portraiture with symbolic, mystical content.
Gauguin also created deeply personal and enigmatic works such as Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch) (1892) and the monumental Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897). These pieces explore themes of mortality, spirituality, and human existence, reflecting his preoccupation with his own life’s trajectory and mortality. By the end of his life, Gauguin’s painting had become increasingly abstract and symbolic, often recycling earlier motifs in a meditative fashion.
Struggling with health problems, drug addiction, and financial hardship, Gauguin attempted suicide in 1899. He died in May 1903 at the age of 54 in the Marquesas Islands, his body later buried in the very land he had chosen as his refuge.
Legacy
Paul Gauguin’s revolutionary approach to color, symbolism, and non-Western motifs profoundly influenced 20th-century modern art. His naturalistic yet stylized depictions inspired artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in their development of Cubism. His bold use of color directly impacted the Fauvist movement, with artists such as Henri Matisse embracing the emotionally charged palettes Gauguin pioneered.
Beyond his art, Gauguin’s life story as the “artist-mystic” who renounced Western civilization for a “primitive” paradise captured the imagination of writers and artists alike. He became the subject of literary works such as W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Moon and Sixpence (1919), which fictionalized his biography and mythologized his quest.
Though controversial for his personal choices and complex relationships with indigenous peoples, Gauguin’s artistic innovations remain foundational to the understanding of modernism. His blend of spirituality, exoticism, and formal experimentation opened new paths for artistic expression and continues to captivate audiences and scholars around the world.