Tuesday, April 8, 2014

G = Gauguin, Paul, Artist - A to Z Blog Challenge

ART: Artists, Art Trivia, Art Legends

A glimpse of the ART world, in the manner of an alphabetical mini-art tour. ART focuses on  artists and the art style movements from 1850's-1960's. There are exceptions.



Paul Gauguin, 1891, French Painter, PD*-WC

G = Gauguin, Paul 
1848 –1903

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. His work was influential to Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.  He was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist and writer.He was also an important figure in the Symbolist movement.

Picasso's paintings in 1906 were influenced by Gauguin's sculpture, his painting and his writing. Later, it is said, Picasso played down Gauguin's influence. Another friendship that became rocky involved Vincent Van Gogh, during a 9-week painting trip in 1888, to the 'Yellow House in Arles'. There are two versions of the story of the 'severed ear' of Vincent. The regular version says the full ear suffered, but Gauguin's version said only the lower lobe of Vincent's ear was cut, which still bled enough to have Vincent hospitalized. Vincent didn't remember. Gauguin left Arles the next day. The two men never saw each other again.

Gauguin showed paintings in the Impressionist exhibitions in 1881 and 1882. Over two summer holidays, he painted with Camille Pissarro and sometimes Paul Cezanne.  In 1891, Gauguin sailed to French Polynesia to escape civilization. He made a few trips back to France before settling in the islands.


The Midday Nap, (1894)


The Midday Nap, 1894, Paul Gauguin, PD*-WC

 
At the end of his life, Gauguin made the mistake of siding with the natives against the French Colonialists. Sentenced to prison, he died May 8, 1903, before he could start serving his sentence. He died of an overdose of morphine and a possible heart attack. He was 54 years at the time. To read more, see links below.

*In 2014, an update has questioned whether Gauguin did indeed ever have syphilis, or have been treated for it. This was from DNA testing.  See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin under Later years and Death, for more details.

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Brought to you by the A to Z Blog Challenge 2014 Team and the originator: Lee of Tossing it Out. Click the A to Z list of participants and read on. Hope to see you again throughout the blogfest!




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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin

Image Credit:

Photo of Gauguin, and Painting, Afternoon Nap or The Siesta

This work is in the public domain in the United States, and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years or less.

The work of art depicted in this image and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain worldwide. The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.