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    GAUGUIN, Paul  


PAUL GAUGUIN, French painter (1848-1903)

He arrived in Tahiti in 1891. While painting idealized visions of Polynesian culture, he relied on the Tahitians to provide him with food, models, and female companionship. Gauguin remained in Tahiti for two years, producing sculptures, woodcuts, and images of young women in Edenic landscapes.

Gauguin first became enthusiastic about painting in the 1860s. By 1874 he was working with Camille Pisarro, who drew him into the Impressionist circle. Quickly abandoning Impressionism, he began using simplified lines and recurring shapes, covering the picture surface with large areas of flat color bounded by clearly marked lines.

In the fall of 1888, Gauguin joined Vincent van Gogh in Arles, but the two quickly parted ways. Gauguin abandoned Europe permanently in 1895, having failed to sell many of the works from his first Tahitian excursion. He died in the Marquesas Islands in 1903.
     
  GAUGUIN, Paul related Styles :
 
  Postimpressionism