GAUGUIN PAUL

After starting a career as a bank broker, Paul Gauguin (born 1848) turnedto painting only at age twenty-five. After initial successes within theImpressionist circle, he broke with Vincent van Gogh and subsequently,when private difficulties caused him to become restless, embarked on aperipatetic life, wandering first through Europe and finally, in thesearch for pristine originality and unadulterated nature, to Tahiti. Thepaintings created from this time to his death in 1903 brought himposthumous fame. In pictures devoid of any attempt at romanticallydisguising the life style of the primitive island peoples, Gauguin wasable to convey the magical effect that both the landscapes and life of thenatives — their body language, charm and beauty — had on him.Wearying of his reputation as a South Sea painter, Gauguin finallydetermined to return to France, but died of syphilis on the MarquisIslands before his departure