| Biography of old oil painting master Gauguin (Eugène-Henri-) Paul what we can copy |
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Gauguin (Eugène-Henri-)
Paul
b. June 7, 1848, Paris, Fr.--d. May 8,
1903,
Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French
Polynesia |
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One of the leading French
painters of the Postimpressionist period,
whose development of a conceptual method of
representation was a decisive step for
20th-century art. After spending a short
period with
Vincent
van Gogh in Arles (1888), Gauguin
increasingly abandoned imitative art for
expressiveness through colour. From 1891
Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) lived and worked in Tahiti and elsewhere in
the South Pacific. His masterpieces include
the early Vision After the Sermon (1888) and
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where
Are We Going? (1897-98).
Although his main achievements were to lie
elsewhere, Gauguin was, to use a fanciful
metaphor, nursed in the bosom of
Impressionism. His attitudes to art were
deeply influenced by his experience of its
first exhibition, and Gauguin Paul
(Eugène-Henri-) himself
participated in those of 1880, 1881 and
1882. The son of a French journalist and a
Peruvian Creole, whose mother had been a
writer and a follower of Saint-Simon,
Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) was
brought up in Lima, joined the merchant navy
in 1865, and in 1872 began a successful
career as a stockbroker in Paris.
In 1874 Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) saw the first Impressionist
exhibition, which completely entranced him
and confirmed his desire to become a
painter. Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) spent some 17,000 francs on
works by
Manet,
Monet,
Sisley,
Pissarro,
Renoir
and Guillaumin.
Pissarro
took a special interest in his attempts at
painting, emphasizing that Gauguin Paul
(Eugène-Henri-) should `look
for the nature that suits your temperament',
and in 1876 Gauguin had a landscape in the
style of
Pissarro
accepted at the Salon. In the meantime
Pissarro
had introduced him to
Cézanne,
for whose works Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) conceived a great
respect---so much so that the older man
began to fear that Gauguin Paul
(Eugène-Henri-) would steal his
`sensations'. All three worked together for
some time at Pontoise, where
Pissarro
and Gauguin drew pencil sketches of each
other (Cabinet des Dessins, Louvre). |
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In 1883-84 the bank that employed him got
into difficulties and Gauguin was able to
paint every day. Gauguin Paul
(Eugène-Henri-) settled for a while in
Rouen, partly because Paris was too
expensive for a man with five children,
partly because Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) thought it would be full
of wealthy patrons who might buy his works.
Rouen proved a disappointment, and Gauguin
Paul (Eugène-Henri-) joined
his wife Mette and children, who had gone
back to Denmark, where she had been born.
His experience of Denmark was not a happy
one and, having returned to Paris, Gauguin
Paul (Eugène-Henri-) went
to paint in Pont-Aven, a well-known resort
for artists. |
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Here, Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) stopped working exclusively
out-of-doors, as Pissarro had taught him,
and generally began to adopt a more
independent line. His meeting with
van Gogh,
the influence of
Seurat, the doctrines of Signac,
and a rediscovery of the merits of
Degas--especially
in his pastels--all combined with his own
streak of megalomania to produce a style
that had little in common with the
thoughtful lyricism of the work of his
erstwhile mentor
Pissarro. Monet confessed to a
liking of his Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
(1888; National Gallery of Scotland), which
Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) saw at the exhibition Gauguin organized
in 1891 to finance his projected excursion
to places where Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) could live on `ecstasy,
calmness and art'; the proceeds amounted to
10,0000 francs, some of it coming from
Degas, who bought several paintings. There
were still evident in these new works traces
of pure Impressionism, and of the very clear
influence of Cézanne (as in the Portrait of
Marie Lagadu, 1890; Art Institute of
Chicago)--a fact pointed up by a Cézanne
still life owned by Gauguin which is shown
behind her--but basically this period marked
the parting of the ways between Gauguin and
Impressionism.
Gauguin's art has all the appearance of a
flight from civilisation, of a search for
new ways of life, more primitive, more real
and more sincere. His break away from a
solid middle-class world, abandoning family,
children and job, his refusal to accept easy
glory and easy gain are the best-known
aspects of Gauguin's fascinating life and
personality. This picture, also known as Two
women on the beach, was painted in 1891,
shortly after Gauguin's arrival in Tahiti.
During his first stay there (he was to leave
in 1893, only to return in 1895 and remain
until his death), Gauguin discovered
primitive art, with its flat forms and the
violent colors belonging to an untamed
nature. And then, with absolute sincerity,
Gauguin Paul (Eugène-Henri-) transferred them onto canvas. |
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