French1848–1903
Paul Gauguin
A Paris stockbroker who painted in his spare time until a financial crash in 1882 pushed him into art full time, with Camille Pissarro as his early mentor. In Brittany he developed a style of flat, bold colour that inspired a circle of younger painters, and in 1888 he spent nine stormy weeks working beside Van Gogh in Arles. He later left France for Tahiti and the Marquesas, and his work shaped Picasso, Matisse and much of modern art.
A life in paintings
- 1848Born
- 1879Studied with Camille Pissarro
Gauguin, then a stockbroker painting in his spare time, was largely self-taught; Pissarro became his informal mentor, introducing him to the Impressionists and their techniques and bringing him into their exhibitions.
Source: Wikipedia - 1888
Taught Paul SérusierPont-Aven, BrittanyIn 1888 the young Sérusier joined the artists around Gauguin at Pont-Aven and painted a small, near-abstract study under his close supervision, using pure, flat colour. His friends made that panel the emblem of the Nabis.
Source: WikipediaWorked with Vincent van GoghArlesAt Van Gogh's urging, and with an allowance from Theo van Gogh, Gauguin joined Vincent at the Yellow House in Arles from late October to December 1888. They painted the same places and the same sitters, Gauguin painted Vincent at work, and they often debated working from imagination versus nature before quarrelling and parting.
Source: Van Gogh Museum - 1889Influenced Maurice Denis
Denis saw Gauguin's work at the Volpini exhibition beside the 1889 Exposition Universelle and called it a revelation: decorative surfaces of strong partitioned colour instead of Impressionist windows on nature. Gauguin's colour and forms passed directly into Denis's paintings from 1890.
Source: Wikipedia - 1903Died
Gauguin admired Degas above all his contemporaries, and Degas's figures and interiors shaped his work from the start. It was Gauguin's longest friendship, lasting until his death.
Degas bought Gauguin's work, persuaded the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel to do the same, and organised his November 1893 exhibition, praising it when other Impressionists mocked it.
Circles
Exhibition · Paris · 1874
Impressionist exhibitions
The eight independent group shows, 1874-1886. Pissarro alone showed at all eight; Cassatt at four; Renoir 1874, 1876, 1877, 1882; Seurat and Signac only at the 8th (1886). Manet never exhibited with them.
- Alfred Sisley
- Camille Pissarro
- Claude Monet
- Edgar Degas
- Georges Seurat
- Gustave Caillebotte
- Mary Cassatt
- Paul Cézanne
- Paul Signac
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Artists’ colony · Pont-Aven, Brittany
Pont-Aven School
The artists' colony at the Breton town of Pont-Aven, active from the 1850s into the early 20th century. Gauguin, who spent long periods there in the late 1880s and early 1890s, became its leading figure, and many painters around him took up bold, pure colour.