Paul Gauguin

Paul Gaugin (1848-1903), though born in Paris, was the son of a French journalist and a Peruvian mother, and spent his childhood in Peru. Working first as a stockbroker, and then a merchant seaman, Gaugin was a "Sunday painter" until he met Pissarro and became absorbed in Impressionism. He married in 1873, and went with his Danish wife to Copenhagen. However, he deserted her and his family when he was 35, and, using a loan from Degas, supported himself for a time by painting and making ceramics. In 1888 he lived in Arles with Vincent Van Gogh, before leaving for Tahiti in search of an unspoiled way of life. After a two-year return to Paris (1893-1895), Gauguin returned to Tahiti, where he lived until in 1901. Then, seriously ill and in trouble with the authorities, he moved to the Marquesas Islands where he died in 1903. Gauguins’ Pacific flavoured prints have always sold well in New Zealand, we import prints of Guaguin’s paintings from publishers in the US and Europe.