Paul Gaugin (b. June 7, 1848, Paris, Fr.--d. May 8, 1903, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas
Islands, French Polynesia) is one of the leading French painters of the
Postimpressionist period, whose development of a conceptual method of
representation was a decisive step for 20th-century art.
After spending
a short period with Vincent van Gogh in Arles (1888), Gauguin
increasingly abandoned imitative art for expressiveness through colour.
From 1891 he lived and worked in Tahiti and elsewhere in the South
Pacific.
His masterpieces include the early Vision After the Sermon
(1888) and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
(1897-98).
[Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994]
The following are his major paintings. Double click on the painting to have it in full screen.
Although Gauguin was settled in Tahiti when he painted this superb
picture, it does not primarily suggest a local connection but rather a
final outcome of the sense of newly tapped powers in color and new
sensations to be derived from it that had been the preoccupation of a
whole half-century. The seed of Impressionism, it might be said,
expanded here into a marvellous exotic bloom. The color, however, is no
longer descriptive or atmospheric but makes an impact on the senses akin
to that of music. The white horse itself suggests some creature of
heroic fable, yet while it shares this appearance of belonging to an
imaginary world with the riders in the background, the picture had its
basis in Polynesian reality. The inhabitants used horses as a means of
transport in the absence of roads and bridges. Bengt Danielsson, the
anthropologist and historian, in his book Gauguin in the South Seas,
makes this remark with special reference to the Marquesas where
`everyone still rides a horse from the bishop down to the smallest
native boy'. Gauguin did not move to the Marquesas until 1901 but as
this picture shows the native horsemanship had already caught his
attention. 1898;
Louvre, Paris
Paul Gaugin, A Complete Life
Paul Gaugin, A Complete Life. by David Sweetman 600pp -- Your Price
42.95. Gauguin for and against: the definitive study by an acknowledged
scholar....
Museum D'Orsay, Paris
Paul Gaugin, PLEASE SEE THIS SITE. An excellent link to get more information on the painter, pictures
of his masterpiece and his biography.
Femmes de Tahiti [Sur la plage] (Tahitian Women [On the Beach])
1891 (150 Kb); Oil on canvas, 69 x 91 cm (27 1/8 x 35 7/8 in);
Musee
d'Orsay, Paris
Les Alyscamps, Arles 1888 (170 Kb); Oil on canvas, 91 x 72 cm (35 7/8 x 28 3/8 in);
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Still Life with Three Puppies 1888 (140 Kb); Oil on canvas, 88 x 62.5 cm (34 3/4 x 24 5/8 in);
The
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Swineherd, Brittany 1888 (180 Kb); Oil on canvas, 74 x 93 cm (29 x 36 1/2 in);
Los Angeles
County Museum of Art
M. Loulou 1890 (130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 55 x 46.2 cm (21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in);
Barnes
Foundation, Merion, PA
Spirit of the Dead Watching 1892 (130 Kb); Oil on burlap mounted on canvas, 72.4 x 92.4 cm (28 1/2 x
36 3/8 in);
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Le Christ jaune (The Yellow Christ) 1889 (160 Kb); Oil on canvas, 92.1 x 73.4 cm (36 1/4 x 28 7/8 in);
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Arearea (Joyousness) 1892;
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Portrait of the Artist with the Idol c. 1893 (80 Kb); Oil on canvas, 43.8 x 32.7 cm (17 1/4 x 12 7/8 in);
McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX
Portrait de l'artiste (Self-portrait)
c. 1893-94 (210 Kb); Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm (18 1/8 x 15 in);
Musee
d'Orsay, Paris
Paysannes bretonnes (Breton peasant women) 1894 (160 Kb); Oil on canvas, 66 x 92 cm (26 x 36 1/4 in);
Musee
d'Orsay, Paris
Nave, Nave Moe (Miraculous Source)
1894;
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
