Paul Gauguin - Delphi Complete Works of Paul Gauguin (Illustrated)

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) Contents Delphi Classics 2016 Version 1 Masters of Art Series Paul Gauguin By Delphi Classics, 2016

His birth coincided with revolutionary upheavals throughout Europe that year. Gauguin was born at 56 rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, 9th arrondissement Aline Marie Chazal Tristn, the artists mother, who was the daughter of the Peruvian Andre Chazal, an engraver, and Flora Tristan, an author and activist in early socialist movements. Gauguin, c. 1891 THE HIGHLIGHTS In this section, a sample of Gauguins most celebrated works is provided, with concise introductions, special detail reproductions and additional biographical images.

Gauguins mother, the 22-year-old Aline Marie Chazal, was the daughter of Andre Chazal, an engraver, and Flora Tristan, an author and activist in early socialist movements. In 1850, they departed for Peru with their young children in hopes of continuing Clovis journalist career under the auspices of his wifes South American relations. However, Andre died of a heart attack en route, and Alina arrived in Peru a widow with the eighteen-month-old Paul and his two-and-a-year-old sister, Marie. Gauguins mother was welcomed by her paternal granduncle, whose son-in-law would shortly assume the presidency of Peru. To the age of six, Paul enjoyed a privileged upbringing, attended by nursemaids and servants. Gauguins idyllic childhood in this tropical paradise ended abruptly when his family mentors fell from political power during Peruvian civil conflicts in 1854.

His uncle would ultimately be remembered as one of the countrys most corrupt presidents and it was not long till his underhand dealings were revealed. Aline returned to France with her children, leaving Paul with his paternal grandfather, Guillaume Gauguin, in Orleans. Deprived by the Peruvian Tristan Moscoso clan of a generous annuity arranged by her granduncle, Alina settled in Paris to work as a dressmaker. At the age of fourteen, Gauguin entered the Loriol Institute in Paris, a naval preparatory school, before returning to Orlans to take his final year at the Lyce Jeanne DArc. Next Gauguin signed on as a pilots assistant in the merchant marine. Three years later, he joined the French navy in which he served for two years.

Then followed a riotous period of adventures on the seas, which the artist recorded in his diaries, chronicling his various sexual encounters at the various ports he visited across the world. His mother died on 7 July 1867, though he did not learn of it for several months until a letter from his sister Marie caught up with him in India. In 1871, Gauguin returned to Paris where he secured a position as a stockbroker, through the timely assistance of Gustave Arosa, a close family friend, working at the Paris Bourse, the capitals stock exchange, when Gauguin was aged twenty-three. He became a successful Parisian businessman and remained one for the next eleven years, eventually earning a large salary. However, this good fortune was not to last. Gauguin met and fell in love with a Danish woman, Mette-Sophie Gad (18501920) in 1873.

They were soon married, Mette believing she was marrying a promising young stock broker, evidently on the rise. However, Gauguin had a secret passion, which until now she knew very little about. Around the same time as he had become a stockbroker, Gauguin began painting in his free time. His Parisian life centred mainly on the 9th arrondissement of Paris, close to the cafs frequented by the Impressionists. Gauguin also frequently visited galleries and purchased work by emerging artists. He formed a friendship with Camille Pissarro and visited him on Sundays to paint in his garden, where he was introduced to various other artists.

In 1877 Gauguin moved downmarket and across the Seine 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 established a studio. From 1881 to 1882 Gauguin exhibited paintings in Impressionist exhibitions, while a sculpture, of his son mile had been the only sculpture in the 4th Impressionist Exhibition of 1879. His paintings received dismissive reviews. Study of a Nude (1880) , completed in Paris, currently resides in the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. It depicts a nude young woman arranging a garment in a bedroom.

The figure sits on an unmade bed against a mauve wall, decorated with a mandolin and tapestry. The body of the model is a three-quarter perspective with the head in profile. While the womans face suggests she is attractive, her body is large, disproportionately pear-shaped and intentionally ugly. The canvas demonstrates the influence of the Impressionists on Gauguin. This striking life-size study was major feature of the 1881 Impressionist show. The heavy flesh of the big-boned pregnant woman, juxtaposed with her everyday task, leant the painting a realistic quality often found in the canvases of Degas and Manet.