Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin was a French artist who sought to achieve a "primitive" expression of spiritual and emotional states in his work. He was born in Paris in 1848 and spent his early childhood in Peru with his family. He returned to France as a teenager and worked as a merchant marine and a stockbroker's clerk. He began painting as a hobby and was influenced by the Impressionists. He married Mette-Sophie Gad in 1873 and had five children with her. He abandoned his family in 1885 to pursue his artistic career. He traveled to Brittany, Martinique, Arles (where he worked with Vincent van Gogh), and Panama. He developed a distinctive style of painting that used bright colors, flat shapes, and simplified forms. He also experimented with sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, and writing. He was interested in the symbolism and spirituality of non-Western cultures and sought to escape from the civilization and materialism of Europe. He moved to Tahiti in 1891 and lived there for most of the rest of his life. He had several relationships with young Tahitian women and fathered four more children. He also suffered from poor health and financial difficulties. He died of syphilis in 1903 at the age of 54 in the Marquesas Islands. His work was largely ignored during his lifetime but became influential after his death. He is now recognized as one of the most important figures of Post-Impressionism and a precursor of modern art.