Paul Gauguin

Born in Paris in 1848, Paul Gauguin first worked as a sailor and later as a stockbroker before turning seriously to art. He became associated with the Post-Impressionists, but soon moved in a more personal direction, using strong outlines, simplified shapes, and vivid, expressive color to create paintings charged with mood and symbolism.

Gauguin spent important periods in Brittany, Martinique, and later Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, seeking subjects and ways of living far from industrial Europe. Works such as The Yellow Christ and his Tahitian paintings helped shape the course of modern art, influencing later artists who admired his daring approach to color and form.

At the same time, his legacy is inseparable from the troubling realities of colonialism and his relationships with very young girls in French Polynesia. He died in 1903 in the Marquesas, leaving behind a body of work that is still admired, debated, and closely examined today.