Gauguin, Paul
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848 and was taken in his infancy by his parents to Lima, Peru. His father died during the voyage and after 4 years Paul was taken back to Paris where he attended school. Gauguin started his first job on a merchant ship at the age of 17 and was sailing all over the world for more than 5 years. Upon his return to Paris, Paul secured himself a job of a stockbroker with the help of Gustave Arosa, his family friend, who was a businessman and also a contemporary art collector whose collection had works by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) and Camille Corot (1796-1875).
Gauguin admired Arosa’s collection and developed his taste in art. He started painting with Émile Schuffenecker, his fellow stockbroker and received artistic instruction frequenting an art studio and drawing from a model. Gauguin visited galleries and became friends with the artist Camille Pissarro (1848-1903) who helped him to master drawing and painting techniques from 1874. Paul’s “Landscape at Viroflay” was shown at the Salon, the annual exhibition in Paris, in 1876. At the same time, Gauguin began to form his collection of contemporary art which included paintings by such artists as Pissaro, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Édouard Manet (1832-1883).
Paul was invited to participate in the fifth Impressionist exhibition in 1880 and continued to do so in 1881 and 1882. In 1883 he decided to become a full-time artist and moved with his wife whom he married in 1873 and five children to Copenhagen which unfortunately did not boost his career. In 1885 Gauguin returned to Paris and took part in the eights Impressionist exhibition in 1886. He became interested in Japanese prints, folk art and Medieval enamelling technique called cloisonné. It was reflected in him practising Synthetic style with each colour having an equal role and none dominating.
Gauguin took a trip to Panama and Martinique in 1887 where he created several prominent works. On his return to Paris Theo van Gogh (1857-1891) bought some of his works at Arsène Poitier’s gallery. He became his dealer and put Paul in touch with his brother Vincent van Gogh (1850-1890). The pair became close friends and spent a few weeks painting together in 1888. In summer this year Gauguin spent time in Pont-Aven where he met young artists Paul Sérusier (1864-1927), Émile Bernard (1868-1941) and a few others whom he taught his painting method and who formed the Nabis group in 1889-1890.
Paul went to his first trip to Tahiti in 1891-1892 during which he painted almost 100 paintings. Edgar Degas (1834-1917) who became Paul’s long-life friend and supporter persuaded Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922), a famous art dealer, to organise a show of Gauguin’s works in 1893 which was a great success. Another important Parisian dealer, Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939) showed works of the artist in his gallery in 1895. The same year Gauguin went to Tahiti again. He settled initially there and moved to the Marquesas Islands in 1901.
Gauguin had two major retrospectives at the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1903 and 1906 both of them after his death. His influence on French and European avant-garde cannot be overestimated. Due to the fact that Sergei Shchukin, a prominent Russian collector, acquired a majority of Gauguin’s late painting his works present in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and Pushkin Fine Art Museum in Moscow as well as in the most major international public collections including the National Gallery in London, Louvre in Paris, Prado in Madrid and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In 2014 Gauguin’s “Nafea Faa Ipoipo” (When Will You Marry?) became his most expensive work when it was sold privately for US$210 million.
