Term Papers on Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin

Term Paper Title	Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin
# of Words	1832
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	7.33

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France on June 7, 1848.  His family were middle class people with a liberal outlook on life.  His father, Clovis, was a rising journalist, and his own family were gardeners, and had been for generations.  His mother's family was more interesting than his father's however.  His mother's family were Peruvian aristocrats, and some of the were quite famous.  Gauguin's grandmother was Flora Tristan, a feminist and friend of George Sand's (Goode 32).  She as well-known in European radical circles during the first half of the 19th century She rote The emancipation of Women and Peregrinations of a Pariah. Gauguin was a direct descendant of Alexander VI, on his mother's side. Alexander had been pope and it was through his oldest son, Juan, that Gauguin was related to him (Goode 32).  Some of his more remote ancestors, therefore, were Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia.

  Gauguin's early life was interesting as the family did not remain in Paris, but instead spent four years in Peru.  Gauguin, who eventually became an artist, did not give any early indications that he was leaning in that direction.  He worked in the French merchant marine for a time, and then became a stockbroker in Paris.  For a time, he sold tarpaulin in Copenhagen.  His career was a successful one, and he married and had five children.  Everything in his life appeared to be settling down comfortably, but before long, all of that would change.

  In 1874, Gauguin met the artist Camille Pissarro and then later saw the first exhibition of impressionist art.  From that time on, Gauguin became intrigued with art and in fact became a collector of art and then an amateur painter.  However, before long, painting became so important to him that he himself exhibited some of his works with other impressionists between 1876 and 1886.  By 1883 he had decided to give up his secure existence and devote himself full-time to painting, a profession that had no secure income.

    As Gauguin's wife realized that her husband would no longer be able to support her and their five children, she returned to her family, leaving Gauguin to pursue his art on his own.  Gauguin, in fact, had a history of fathering children he could not or would not support.  Between 1886 and 1891 Gauguin lived mostly in rural Brittany, although he did visit Panama and Martinique during that period of time.  In Brittany, however, Gauguin was the center of a small group of experimental painters who were known as the school of Pont-Aven.

  Gauguin began to turn away from impressionism, and eventually began to adopt a less naturalistic style, which he referred to as synthesism.  His inspirations came from medieval stained glass, the lives of indigenous peoples, and Japanese prints.  Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh introduced Gauguin to Japanese prints when the two men spent two months together at Arles in the south of France in 1888.  It was probably a quarrel between Van Gogh and Gauguin, in fact, that caused Van Gogh to take the famous step of cutting off a part of one of his ears.

    By 1891, Gauguin was greatly in debt.  He was also disillusioned, feeling that the civilized world around him was artificial and conventional.  He left France to go to the South Seas to escape European civilization.  He remained in the tropics for the rest of his life except for a two year visit to France between 1893 and 1895.  He lived in Tahiti for a time and later moved to the Marquesas Islands.  In the South Seas, his style remained essentially the same, as he used expressive color, no perspective, and thick, flat forms.

   However, while in the tropics, Gauguin's paintings became much more powerful.  They were larger, simpler, and more distinctive in subject matter.  The subject of his paintings ranged from scenes of everyday life to scenes that indicated a sense of superstitious dread.

   Gauguin's life was not one that most people would admire, as much as they might admire his paintings.  Gauguin originally went to T...

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