Gauguin. Jp. A. Calosse

(Maurice Malingue) and who “initiated the art of modern times” (René Huyghe).

      Seated Breton

      1886

      Charcoal and pastel, 32.8 × 48 cm

      Art Institute, Chicago

      Gauguin began his career as a grown man. Nothing in his childhood or youth betrayed any hint of his future as an artist. He was born in Paris on 7 June 1848, in the midst of the revolutionary events when barricade fighting was going on in the streets of the city. This fact was to have repercussions for Gauguin’s later life.

      Young Breton Seated

      1886

      Charcoal and watercolour, 30.5 × 42.2 cm

      Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens, Paris

      It is difficult to say whether Clovis Gauguin played an active role in the events, but it is a fact that following the failure of Marrast (who was a member of General Cavaignac’s government) in the election to the National Assembly, the Gauguins left France. In the autumn of 1849, the family sailed for Peru, where they could count on the support of Mine Gauguin’s distant but influential relatives.

      The Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Fighting with the Angel)

      1888

      73 × 92 cm

      National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

      On 30 October 1849, he died at sea and his wife, with two children, had to continue the journey on her own. Childhood in Peru was forever engraved on Paul Gauguin’s memory. The recollections of simple, natural relations among people with different-coloured skins, who lacked racial or social prejudice, the relations, which might have been largely idealised in the child’s memory, merged with the recollections of luxuriant tropical nature with its rich colours under the dazzling sun.

      Blue Trees

      1888

      Oil on canvas, 92 × 73 cm

      Ordrupgaardsamlingen, Copenhagen

      It is very likely that these early impressions determined the subsequent development of Gauguin’s artistic tastes and ideals. His return to France put an end to Paul’s happy and carefree life. At school in Orleans and later at a Lycée in Paris the dream of tropical countries and the sea never left Gauguin.

      Bretons and Calf

      1888

      Oil on canvas, 91 × 72 cm

      Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

      At fifteen he found employment as a cabin-boy on a merchant ship and sailed to the South American coast, almost retracing the route of his first voyage overseas. But this romantic start was followed by an abrupt and unwelcome change: the Franco-Prussian war broke out, the merchant ship on which Gauguin served was requisitioned, and instead of the tropics he found himself in the north, near the Norwegian and Danish coasts.