Paul Gauguin

Artist: Gauguin, Paul

Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin

Movement(s): Post ImpressionismPrimitivismSynthetism

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French Polynesia. The paintings from this time depict people or landscapes from that region.

His work was influential on the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, and he is well known for his relationship with Vincent and Theo van Gogh. Gauguin’s art became popular after his death, partially from the efforts of dealer Ambroise Vollard, who organized exhibitions of his work late in his career and assisted in organizing two important posthumous exhibitions in Paris.

Gauguin was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. His expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way for Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

Gauguin was born in Paris to Clovis Gauguin and Aline Chazal on 7 June 1848. His birth coincided with revolutionary upheavals throughout Europe that year. His father, a 34-year-old liberal journalist, came from a family of entrepreneurs residing in Orleans. He was compelled to flee France when the newspaper for which he wrote was suppressed by French authorities. Gauguin’s mother was the 22-year-old daughter of Andre Chazal, an engraver, and Flora Tristan, an author and activist in early socialist movements. Their union ended when Andre assaulted his wife Flora and was sentenced to prison for attempted murder.

In 1873, around the same time as he became a stockbroker, Gauguin began painting in his free time. His Parisian life centred on the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Gauguin lived at 15, rue la Bruyère. Nearby were the cafes frequented by the Impressionists. Gauguin also visited galleries frequently and purchased work by emerging artists. He formed a friendship with Camille Pissarro and visited him on Sundays to paint in his garden. Pissarro introduced him to various other artists. In 1877 Gauguin “moved downmarket and across the river to the poorer, newer, urban sprawls” of Vaugirard. Here, on the third floor at 8 rue Carcel, he had the first home in which he had a studio.

Click here to read the VERY long bio of Gauguin on Wikipedia.

Paul Gauguin painted mostly in Paris and overseas (Martinique and Tahiti). He did however paint in the following places in France (a link “” to his works will appear below when published):

  • Brittany
    • Pont-Aven
  • Normandy
  • Nouvelle-Aquitaine

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