Paul Gauguin, paintings: description, history of creation. Incredible paintings by Gauguin

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Paul Gauguin, an outstanding French painter, was born on June 7, 1848. He is a major representative of post-impressionism in the art of painting. He is considered an unsurpassed master of fine decorative stylization, with elements of the so-called "island" manner of artistic drawing. The style of the artist's work was determined by his integration into the society of the aborigines living in Tahiti. Gauguin lived on the island for the last few years of his life in complete peace and quiet. The people around him represented an inexhaustible source of plots for creating paintings, and the artist worked tirelessly. During his life in Tahiti, Paul Gauguin painted more than a hundred paintings, but only a small part has survived to this day.

Departure for Peru

Paul Gauguin grew up in the family of a political journalist, leading columnist for the magazine Nacional. Mother, along with her numerous relatives, preached utopian socialism. The republican radical ideas of the father and the fanatical belief of the mother in non-existent values gave rise tounhe althy atmosphere in the family, and young Gauguin tried not to delve into the complex interweaving of relationships between parents. During the aggravation of the political situation in France, the Gauguin family in full force boarded a ship sailing to Latin America. On the way, Paul's father died, the cause of death was a heart attack. Upon arrival in Peru, the future artist was adopted by a family of relatives on the maternal side, where he found comfort and the opportunity for creative development. A new country, exotic and unusual, conquered the Fields, its color laid the foundation for Gauguin's love for the tropics.

Return to France

However, fate decreed that Paul Gauguin, at the age of eight, went back to France with his mother to receive the rights to the inheritance left after the death of his uncle, his father's brother. Mother and son, having completed all the necessary documents under the will, decided not to return to Peru and stay in France. Paul began to study, and his mother took up the sewing business. At the age of 17, young Gauguin was hired as a cabin boy on a ship and set off on a long voyage. Over the next six years, Paul sailed the seas and oceans, got acquainted with new countries, received a kind of life experience. Just before returning to France, he learns about the death of his mother, who, in a letter, entrusts her son to her friend Gustav Arosa, a businessman and art collector. Gustav welcomes Gauguin cordially, they no longer part until Paul's departure for Tahiti.

Private life

After a little rest from sea travel, Gauguin gets a job at the stock exchange inas a broker, he is successful: Paul begins to earn decent money. Changes are also taking place in his personal life, at one of the parties in the family of his friend Gustav Gauguin he meets the charming Dane Sophie Gadot and after some time marries her. In the same period, Paul begins to try his hand at the field of fine arts, his first paintings are frankly amateurish, and disappointed Gauguin quits painting. The appearance of a child for some time distracts the future artist from creative attempts, but soon he returns to the easel and this return becomes fateful, now the painter Paul Gauguin will not part with the brush until the end of his life.

First exhibitions

The works of the novice artist immediately aroused the interest of critics, but they were confused, because Gauguin's style was unpredictable, his expression did not fit into the canons of painting, and the combination of colors was simply unthinkable. They started talking about an unusual artist, he began to receive invitations to participate in exhibitions of the Impressionists. Any painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin could participate in these exhibitions. The whole of 1879, the time of the formation of Gauguin as an artist, passed under the sign of unceasing interest in his work. With his unique manner of slightly out-of-proportioning the female body, Paul Gauguin, whose paintings usually caused ambiguous judgments, in most cases presented magnificent examples of exclusivity to the public.

Gaugin Style

At that time, impressionism reigned in the visual arts, and the young artist quickly joined this exquisite style of painting. He managed to realize his vision of the world around him in a special "Gaugin" manner. Wonderful canvases came out from under his brush, bright and original, on which authenticity and fantasy were combined in an incomprehensible way, conventionality alternated with reality, and the characters never dominated, remaining part of the plot of the picture. A few years later, Paul Gauguin, whose paintings were recognized by the artistic community of France, got the opportunity to participate in various exhibitions of the Impressionists, which were frankly bohemian.

Need

Gauguin's success was even, his work aroused interest, but there was no excitement around his work. The artist was praised, but no one bought the work. Gradually, Gauguin's paintings, which artists from all over France came to see, became for him simple unnecessary sketches, he lost faith in his creative aspirations, although he continued to write. He did not receive any benefit from work, he lived in need, he had to work a lot in order to somehow feed himself. In art, such cases are not uncommon, when during their lifetime talented masters barely make ends meet, and after death their work receives universal recognition. Gauguin's paintings also began to be sold and bought for big money after his death.

Two friends of Gauguin

Camille Pissarro, a friend of Gauguin, had a decisive influence on his work. A participant in all exhibitions of the Impressionists, and there were exactly eight of them, Pissarro shared his experience with his younger colleague, revealing to him the intricacies of the art of painting. Paul Gauguin (his paintings at one time were an attempt to imitate Pissarro) eventually developed his own style of writing. In 1885, Paul Gauguin met the already accomplished artist Edgar Degas, a longtime admirer of his work. And since the paintings of Gauguin were admired, but not bought, acquaintance with Degas became in some way saving for him, since the venerable impressionist artist began to acquire the works of Paul Gauguin for a good price, thereby maintaining his existence at a decent level.

Life in Tahiti

In 1884, the Gauguins moved with the whole family to Copenhagen, where Paul continued to work as a broker on the stock exchange. However, painting has already become the meaning of life for him. A year later, Gauguin, leaving his wife and five children, returned to Paris. However, his paintings were still not bought, and in the end the artist left for Tahiti, where, according to him, he "merged with nature", completely parting with civilization. On the island of Gauguin, whose paintings remained in France, he experienced an unprecedented creative upsurge, in 1892 alone he painted eighty canvases. The artist married a young Tahitian woman and lived relatively happily, painting and journalism. But his he alth began to change, his he alth worsened, and soon Paul Gauguin died of a tropical disease. A few years later, Gauguin's paintings withnames reflecting his time in Tahiti began to appear at auctions.