Paul Gaugin

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Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure inthe Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. His bold experimentation with coloring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of theinherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent ofwood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France to journalist Clovis Gauguin and Alina Maria Chazal, daughter of the half-Peruvian proto-socialist leader Flora Tristan,a feminist precursor. In 1851 the family left Paris for Peru, motivated by the political climate of the period. Clovis died on the voyage, leaving three-year old Paul, his mother and sister to fend forthemselves. They lived for four years in Lima, Peru with Paul's uncle and his family. The imagery of Peru would later influence Gauguin in his art.
At the age of seven, Gauguin and his family returned toFrance. They moved to Orléans, France to live with his grandfather. He soon learnedFrench and excelled in his studies. At seventeen, Gauguin signed on as a pilot's assistant in the merchant marine tofulfill his requiredmilitary service. Three years later, he joined the French navy where he stayed for two years. In 1871, Gauguin returned to Paris where he secured a job as a stockbroker. In 1873,he married a Danish woman, Mette-Sophie Gad. Over the next ten years, they had five children.
By 1884 Gauguin had moved with his family to Copenhagen, where he pursued a business career asa stockbroker. Driven to paint full-time, he returned to Paris in 1885, leaving his family in Denmark. Without adequate subsistence, his wife (Mette Sophie Gadd) and their five children returned to her...