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Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin was born on June 7, 1848, in Paris, France. His father, Clovis Gaughin, was a Republican editor who died on his way to Peru while escaping from Louis Napoleon. His widowed mother was a Peruvian Creole daughter of writer Flora Tristan. Young Gauguin spent early childhood in Lima, Peru, until 1855, then studied in Orleans, France. He joined the Merchant Marine in 1865 and spent the next six years sailing between France and South America, then spent a hitch in the French navy. In 1871 he returned to France, settled in Paris and became a stockbroker.
In 1874 Gauguin saw the first Impressionist exhibition, which gave him his desire to become an artist. Enchanted with art, he spent some 17,000 francs on paintings by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and other impressionists. Gauguin discovered art as a way to escape from the pressures of civilization. He met Camille Pissarro and Paul Cezanne in 1874, and joined them for painting on weekends and holidays. His debut in the Salon took place in 1876. He also participated in the Impressionist exhibitions in 1879, 1880 and 1882. By 1884 he became a full-time artist, partly because the bank that employed him had difficulties. Paris became too expensive and Gauguin moved with his wife and five children to Rouen, then to Copenhagen, Denmark, and then back to Paris. In 1885 he and his wife separated and she took the children with her to her family. Gauguin went into depression and at one time attempted suicide.
He met Vincent van Gogh in Paris in 1886 and they became friends. Van Gogh's brother Theo was also Gauguin's art dealer. In 1888 he received an invitation from Vincent and joined him in October of that year in Arles. There Van Gogh presented him several paintings of sunflowers, but their cooperation lasted only for two months. Their arguments about art and life were exacerbated by drinking and rivalry for prostitutes. Van Gogh's mental state was alternating between fits of depression and lucidity. At times his madness led to aggressive actions. In December of 1888 Van Gogh attacked Gauguin with an open razor, was stopped, but eventually cut part of his own ear off and gave it to a prostitute. Gauguin sent a note to Van Gogh's brother Theo and left forever.
In 1891 Gauguin organized an exhibition to finance his project of living and working in places where he could "live with ecstasy, calmness and art." His paintings were bought by Edgar Degas and others, and the proceeds amounted to 10,000 francs. He started his flight from the trappings of civilization by becoming a full-time artist and this time he sailed to the tropics for good. Gauguin left behind "everything that is artificial and conventional." He settled in Tahiti and later in the Marquesas Islands. There he was accepted by the native community and adopted their traditional lifestyle. He fathered a son by his Tahitian model Pau'ura and a daughter with his Tahitian model Vaa'oho. From 1893 to 1895 he made farewell visits to Paris and Copenhagen. There he brought some of his Polynesian-inspired works to show.
Gauguin gradually parted from Impressionism. He discovered the primitive art of Polynesia and was influenced by it. He was calling his new style "synthetic symbolism." Gauguin transformed his art to radical simplifications of composition by giving his paintings an ornamental character. His "Arearea" (Joyousness 1892), "Nave", "Nave Moe" (Miraculous Source 1894) and other paintings made in Tahiti are sincere depictions of an untamed nature with people being an organic part of it. His largest work was painted in Tahiti, the philosophical and highly decorative "D'ou venons nous? Que sommes-nous? Ou allons-nous?" (Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897), now in the permanent collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Art.
Paul Gauguin moved around several islands of Polynesia and finally settled in Atuona, Marqueses. He was fined by the colonial administration, had problems with the Catholic church and was sentenced to three months in prison. Before he could begin his sentence, however, he died on May 8, 1903, and was laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery, Atuona, Hiva'Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia.
