GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris during the unsettled political era of the Paris Commune in 1848. His family soon left for Lima, Peru, where Gauguin lived until he was seven. Between 1865 and 1871, he was a sailor with the merchant marines. After returning to France, he became a stockbroker under the guidance of family friend Gustave Arosa. Through Arosa’s collection of art, Gauguin also became increasingly interested in both producing and collecting art. He owned Paul Cézanne’s The Harvest of 1875–77, a painting that Van Gogh had admired at a gallery in Paris. By the 1880s Gauguin had decided to devote himself to art. His friendship with Pissarro and Cézanne provided him with connections to the impressionists. His early works, which he exhibited with that group, were met with critical indifference.
With dwindling finances, Gauguin set out for Pont-Aven, Brittany, in 1886: he returned there in 1888 and again in 1889. Artists like Gauguin and Émile Bernard were drawn to the remoteness of the region and its ancient Breton culture. In reality, the distinctive costumes worn by the peasants were modern in origin and the area was experiencing rapid growth in commerce and industry. Between his trips to Brittany, Gauguin traveled to Martinique. It was in 1887 that Van Gogh first saw Gauguin’s paintings from the Caribbean island, which persuaded him that here was someone capable of making an “art of the future.” The two exchanged pictures and struck up a friendship. Van Gogh encouraged Gauguin to join him in Arles in 1888. Even after abruptly leaving the “Studio of the South” two months later, Gauguin continued to correspond with Van Gogh, describing his lithographs on zinc. A meeting between Gauguin and Bernard that year proved to be a decisive one. Gauguin completely broke with the Impressionists and formulated a new approach to painting that called for a return to simplified, solid, well defined forms, lighting without shadows, and flat colors techniques that were then frowned upon as attempts to free the artist from nature. His first major work in this style which he labeled "syntheticism" was Vision after the Sermon.
By 1890 he was leading the anti-naturalist Symbolist circle in Paris, yet the Paris literary circles and their endless talk, together with financial troubles, drew him towards what he viewed as the simplicity and innocence of the “natural man.” Therefore in 1891 he abandoned his family and embarked for Tahiti, hoping to find this. Gauguin was only to return to Paris once, in 1895. He greatly admired primitive and medieval art, and his romantic yearning for primitive cultures paralleled the social and artistic discontents of the time. His subject matter reflected this, with its questioning allegories of life and death that he drew from both pagan and christian sources. He believed painting should not copy or describe nature, but suggest it, "as music does." His impact as a painter was strongly felt among modernist artists of the early Twentieth century. Gauguin died, possibly of a drug overdose, in Autuona, French Polynesia in 1903.
Adapted from
- Dorothy Kosinski, Van Gogh's Sheaves of Wheat (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2006), 106.
- Gauguin biography from 20th century biographies in the education files- (Same as "Primitivism Biographies," DMA research document, Education files, n.d.)
NOTES
"European Masterworks," DMA label copy, for Gauguin's Under the Pandanus, 1963.58.FA
Paul Gauguin's life seems to have been punctuated by his
encounters with exotic places. His restless desire to escape
from middle-class Europe led him to Tahiti in 1891. He
returned to Paris in 1893 sick and out of money but managed
to return to Tahiti in 1895. In 1900 he moved to the
Marquesas Islands, where he died in 1903.
He was extraordinarily productive in Tahiti, making some
of his best paintings, woodcuts, and sculpture. Under the
Pandanus was painted there in 1891.Mter returning to Paris
from his first Tahitian trip, Gauguin wrote a fictionalized
narrative of his experiences entitled Noa Noa. Between 1893
and 1896, he copied the text into a bound album and illustrated
many of the pages with photographs, woodcuts, drawings,
rubbings, watercolors, and monotypes.
Note on Kosinski's General Description:
See Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South, exh. cat. (New York: Thames and Hudson; Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, 2001).
Many other artists and writers were obsessed with the notion
of the exotic paradise; some responded directly to Gauguin's
quest.
Noa Noa by Paul Gauguin
Paradise by Larry McMurtry
The Happy Isles if Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux
Fatu-Hiva by Thor Heyerdahl
Journals by Captain James Cook
"An Invitation to the Voyage" by Charles Baudelaire
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris during the unsettled political era of the Paris Commune in 1848. His family soon left for Lima, Peru, where Gauguin lived until he was seven. Between 1865 and 1871, he was a sailor with the merchant marines. After returning to France, he became a stockbroker under the guidance of family friend Gustave Arosa. Through Arosa’s collection of art, Gauguin also became increasingly interested in both producing and collecting art. He owned Paul Cézanne’s The Harvest of 1875–77, a painting that Van Gogh had admired at a gallery in Paris. By the 1880s Gauguin had decided to devote himself to art. His friendship with Pissarro and Cézanne provided him with connections to the impressionists. His early works, which he exhibited with that group, were met with critical indifference. With dwindling finances, Gauguin set out for Pont-Aven, Brittany, in 1886: he returned there in 1888 and again in 1889. The painting Harvest: Le Pouldu represents a field south of the village of Kerzellec, near Le Pouldu. Artists like Gauguin and Émile Bernard were drawn to the remoteness of the region and its ancient Breton culture. In reality, the distinctive costumes worn by the peasants were modern in origin and the area was experiencing rapid growth in commerce and industry. Between his trips to Brittany, Gauguin traveled to Martinique. It was in 1887 that Van Gogh first saw Gauguin’s paintings from the Caribbean island, which persuaded him that here was someone capable of making an “art of the future.” The two exchanged pictures and struck up a friendship. Van Gogh encouraged Gauguin to join him in Arles in 1888. Even after abruptly leaving the “Studio of the South” two months later, Gauguin continued to correspond with Van Gogh, describing his lithographs on zinc, which included the series The Pleasures of Brittany.
Excerpt from
Dorothy Kosinski, Van Gogh's Sheaves of Wheat (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2006), 106.
Gauguin biography from 20th century biographies in the education files- (Same as "Primitivism Biographies," DMA research document, Education files, n.d.)
Born in Paris in 1848. Gauguin spent his early adult years as a member of the French navy. He traveled to Rio de Janeiro and Bahia in Brazil, and to Scandinavia before he entered a Paris stockbroker's office in 1871. During this period he avidly collected Impressionist and Barbizon School paintings, as well as attending basic art classes. In 1876 Gauguin also met Camille Pissarro, who was to become a close friend. The two would spend frequent summers painting together. While on his first trip to Brittany in 1886, he met van Gogh and Emile Bernard. A meeting between Gauguin and Bernard 2 years later proved to be a decisive one. He broke with the Impressionists and formulated a new approach to painting. This called for a return to simplified, solid, well defined forms, lighting without shadows, and flat colors techniques that were then frowned upon as a ttempts to free the artist from nature. His first maj or work in this style which he labeled "syntheticism" was "Vision after the Sermon". By 1890 he was leading the anti-naturalist Symbolist circle in Paris, yet the Paris literary circles and their endless talk, together with financial troubles, drew him towards the simplicity and innocence of the natural man. Therefore in 1891 he embarked for Tahiti, hoping to find this. Gauguin was only to return to Paris once, in 1895. He greatly admired primitive and medieval art, and his romantic yearning for primitive cultures paralleled the social and artistic discontents of the time. His subject matter reflected this, with its questioning allegories of life and death, that he drew from both Pagan and Christian sources. He claimed painting shouldn't copy or describe nature, but suggest it, "as music does". His impact as a painter was strongly felt among modernist artists of the early Twentieth century, including Picasso.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS
AUDIO ASSETS
Gauguin and Van Gogh: A Dialogue of Bouquets 107660584: UMO
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
265936846: UMO. [Caption] Paul Gauguin helping at meal-time in Pont-Aven in July 1892. Source: Author unknown, Pont-Aven Museum, Uploaded by Moreau.henri, Wikimedia Commons, accessed July 15, 2016.
WEB RESOURCES
- National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh~View Gauguin's Vision After the Sermon.
- Tate, London~Watch this video about Gauguin from the Tate.
- YouTube~Watch a video of actor Keanu Reeves reading excerpts from Gauguin's Tahitian travel journal Noa Noa.
- Minneapolis Institute of Art~Check out this Tahitian landscape by Gauguin.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
apply to constituents where id equals 1280
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris during the unsettled political era of the Paris Commune in 1848. His family soon left for Lima, Peru, where Gauguin lived until he was seven. Between 1865 and 1871, he was a sailor with the merchant marines. After returning to France, he became a stockbroker under the guidance of family friend Gustave Arosa. Through Arosa’s collection of art, Gauguin also became increasingly interested in both producing and collecting art. He owned Paul Cézanne’s The Harvest of 1875–77, a painting that Van Gogh had admired at a gallery in Paris. By the 1880s Gauguin had decided to devote himself to art. His friendship with Pissarro and Cézanne provided him with connections to the impressionists. His early works, which he exhibited with that group, were met with critical indifference.
With dwindling finances, Gauguin set out for Pont-Aven, Brittany, in 1886: he returned there in 1888 and again in 1889. Artists like Gauguin and Émile Bernard were drawn to the remoteness of the region and its ancient Breton culture. In reality, the distinctive costumes worn by the peasants were modern in origin and the area was experiencing rapid growth in commerce and industry. Between his trips to Brittany, Gauguin traveled to Martinique. It was in 1887 that Van Gogh first saw Gauguin’s paintings from the Caribbean island, which persuaded him that here was someone capable of making an “art of the future.” The two exchanged pictures and struck up a friendship. Van Gogh encouraged Gauguin to join him in Arles in 1888. Even after abruptly leaving the “Studio of the South” two months later, Gauguin continued to correspond with Van Gogh, describing his lithographs on zinc. A meeting between Gauguin and Bernard that year proved to be a decisive one. Gauguin completely broke with the Impressionists and formulated a new approach to painting that called for a return to simplified, solid, well defined forms, lighting without shadows, and flat colors techniques that were then frowned upon as attempts to free the artist from nature. His first major work in this style which he labeled "syntheticism" was Vision after the Sermon.
By 1890 he was leading the anti-naturalist Symbolist circle in Paris, yet the Paris literary circles and their endless talk, together with financial troubles, drew him towards what he viewed as the simplicity and innocence of the “natural man.” Therefore in 1891 he abandoned his family and embarked for Tahiti, hoping to find this. Gauguin was only to return to Paris once, in 1895. He greatly admired primitive and medieval art, and his romantic yearning for primitive cultures paralleled the social and artistic discontents of the time. His subject matter reflected this, with its questioning allegories of life and death that he drew from both pagan and christian sources. He believed painting should not copy or describe nature, but suggest it, "as music does." His impact as a painter was strongly felt among modernist artists of the early Twentieth century. Gauguin died, possibly of a drug overdose, in Autuona, French Polynesia in 1903.
Adapted from
- Dorothy Kosinski, Van Gogh's Sheaves of Wheat (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2006), 106.
- Gauguin biography from 20th century biographies in the education files- (Same as "Primitivism Biographies," DMA research document, Education files, n.d.)
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh~View Gauguin's Vision After the Sermon.
- Tate, London~Watch this video about Gauguin from the Tate.
- YouTube~Watch a video of actor Keanu Reeves reading excerpts from Gauguin's Tahitian travel journal Noa Noa.
- Minneapolis Institute of Art~Check out this Tahitian landscape by Gauguin.
Notes
"European Masterworks," DMA label copy, for Gauguin's Under the Pandanus, 1963.58.FA
Paul Gauguin's life seems to have been punctuated by his
encounters with exotic places. His restless desire to escape
from middle-class Europe led him to Tahiti in 1891. He
returned to Paris in 1893 sick and out of money but managed
to return to Tahiti in 1895. In 1900 he moved to the
Marquesas Islands, where he died in 1903.
He was extraordinarily productive in Tahiti, making some
of his best paintings, woodcuts, and sculpture. Under the
Pandanus was painted there in 1891.Mter returning to Paris
from his first Tahitian trip, Gauguin wrote a fictionalized
narrative of his experiences entitled Noa Noa. Between 1893
and 1896, he copied the text into a bound album and illustrated
many of the pages with photographs, woodcuts, drawings,
rubbings, watercolors, and monotypes.
Note on Kosinski's General Description:
See Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South, exh. cat. (New York: Thames and Hudson; Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, 2001).
Many other artists and writers were obsessed with the notion
of the exotic paradise; some responded directly to Gauguin's
quest.
Noa Noa by Paul Gauguin
Paradise by Larry McMurtry
The Happy Isles if Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux
Fatu-Hiva by Thor Heyerdahl
Journals by Captain James Cook
"An Invitation to the Voyage" by Charles Baudelaire
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris during the unsettled political era of the Paris Commune in 1848. His family soon left for Lima, Peru, where Gauguin lived until he was seven. Between 1865 and 1871, he was a sailor with the merchant marines. After returning to France, he became a stockbroker under the guidance of family friend Gustave Arosa. Through Arosa’s collection of art, Gauguin also became increasingly interested in both producing and collecting art. He owned Paul Cézanne’s The Harvest of 1875–77, a painting that Van Gogh had admired at a gallery in Paris. By the 1880s Gauguin had decided to devote himself to art. His friendship with Pissarro and Cézanne provided him with connections to the impressionists. His early works, which he exhibited with that group, were met with critical indifference. With dwindling finances, Gauguin set out for Pont-Aven, Brittany, in 1886: he returned there in 1888 and again in 1889. The painting Harvest: Le Pouldu represents a field south of the village of Kerzellec, near Le Pouldu. Artists like Gauguin and Émile Bernard were drawn to the remoteness of the region and its ancient Breton culture. In reality, the distinctive costumes worn by the peasants were modern in origin and the area was experiencing rapid growth in commerce and industry. Between his trips to Brittany, Gauguin traveled to Martinique. It was in 1887 that Van Gogh first saw Gauguin’s paintings from the Caribbean island, which persuaded him that here was someone capable of making an “art of the future.” The two exchanged pictures and struck up a friendship. Van Gogh encouraged Gauguin to join him in Arles in 1888. Even after abruptly leaving the “Studio of the South” two months later, Gauguin continued to correspond with Van Gogh, describing his lithographs on zinc, which included the series The Pleasures of Brittany.
Excerpt from
Dorothy Kosinski, Van Gogh's Sheaves of Wheat (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2006), 106.
Gauguin biography from 20th century biographies in the education files- (Same as "Primitivism Biographies," DMA research document, Education files, n.d.)
Born in Paris in 1848. Gauguin spent his early adult years as a member of the French navy. He traveled to Rio de Janeiro and Bahia in Brazil, and to Scandinavia before he entered a Paris stockbroker's office in 1871. During this period he avidly collected Impressionist and Barbizon School paintings, as well as attending basic art classes. In 1876 Gauguin also met Camille Pissarro, who was to become a close friend. The two would spend frequent summers painting together. While on his first trip to Brittany in 1886, he met van Gogh and Emile Bernard. A meeting between Gauguin and Bernard 2 years later proved to be a decisive one. He broke with the Impressionists and formulated a new approach to painting. This called for a return to simplified, solid, well defined forms, lighting without shadows, and flat colors techniques that were then frowned upon as a ttempts to free the artist from nature. His first maj or work in this style which he labeled "syntheticism" was "Vision after the Sermon". By 1890 he was leading the anti-naturalist Symbolist circle in Paris, yet the Paris literary circles and their endless talk, together with financial troubles, drew him towards the simplicity and innocence of the natural man. Therefore in 1891 he embarked for Tahiti, hoping to find this. Gauguin was only to return to Paris once, in 1895. He greatly admired primitive and medieval art, and his romantic yearning for primitive cultures paralleled the social and artistic discontents of the time. His subject matter reflected this, with its questioning allegories of life and death, that he drew from both Pagan and Christian sources. He claimed painting shouldn't copy or describe nature, but suggest it, "as music does". His impact as a painter was strongly felt among modernist artists of the early Twentieth century, including Picasso.
rules
Apply To
Constituents
id
Equals
1280
source file
artists_and_designers-0044.xml.nores