Paul Gauguin

This never materialized; but she successfully published a popular travelogue of her experiences in Peru which launched her literary career in 1838.

Placed under surveillance by French police and suffering from overwork, she died in 1844.

Her grandson Paul "idolized his grandmother, and kept copies of her books with him to the end of his life".

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (,, ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements.

He was also an influential practitioner of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

While only moderately successful during his lifetime, Gauguin has since been recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism.

Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848, amidst the tumult of Europe's revolutionary year.

Gauguin was born in Paris to Clovis Gauguin and Aline Chazal on 7 June 1848, the year of revolutionary upheavals throughout Europe.

His father, a 34-year-old liberal journalist from a family of entrepreneurs in Orléans, was compelled to flee France when the newspaper for which he wrote was suppressed by French authorities.

Gauguin's mother was the 22-year-old daughter of André Chazal, an engraver, and Flora Tristan, an author and activist in early socialist movements.

Their union ended when André assaulted his wife Flora and was sentenced to prison for attempted murder.

Paul Gauguin's maternal grandmother, Flora Tristan, was the illegitimate daughter of Thérèse Laisnay and Don Mariano de Tristan Moscoso.

Details of Thérèse's family background are not known; Don Mariano came from an aristocratic Spanish family from the Peruvian city of Arequipa.

He was an officer of the Dragoons.

Members of the wealthy Tristan Moscoso family held powerful positions in Peru.

Nonetheless, Don Mariano's unexpected death plunged his mistress and daughter Flora into poverty.

When Flora's marriage with André failed, she petitioned for and obtained a small monetary settlement from her father's Peruvian relatives.

She sailed to Peru in hopes of enlarging her share of the Tristan Moscoso family fortune.

An active supporter of early socialist societies, Gauguin's maternal grandmother helped to lay the foundations for the 1848 revolutionary movements.

In 1850, Gauguin's family settled in Peru, where he experienced a privileged childhood that left a lasting impression on him.

Later, financial struggles led them back to France, where Gauguin received formal education.

Initially working as a stockbroker, Gauguin started painting in his spare time, his interest in art kindled by visits to galleries and exhibitions.

In 1850, Clovis Gauguin departed for Peru with his wife Aline and young children in hopes of continuing his journalistic career under the auspices of his wife's South American relations.

He died of a heart attack en route, and Aline arrived in Peru as a widow with the 18-month-old Paul and his 21⁄2 year-old sister, Marie.

Gauguin's mother was welcomed by her paternal granduncle, whose son-in-law, José Rufino Echenique, would shortly assume the presidency of Peru.

To the age of six, Paul enjoyed a privileged upbringing, attended by nursemaids and servants.

He retained a vivid memory of that period of his childhood which instilled "indelible impressions of Peru that haunted him the rest of his life".

Gauguin's idyllic childhood ended abruptly when his family mentors fell from political power during Peruvian civil conflicts in 1854.

He exhibited with the Impressionists in the early 1880s, but soon began developing his distinct style, characterized by a bolder use of color and less traditional subject matter.

His work in Brittany and Martinique showcased his inclination towards depicting native life and landscapes.

The financial crisis of 1882 significantly impacted his brokerage career, prompting a full-time shift to painting.

Gauguin's art education was largely self-taught and informal, shaped significantly by his associations with other artists rather than academic training.

His entry into the art world was facilitated by his acquaintance with Camille Pissarro, a leading Impressionist.

Pissarro took on a mentor role for Gauguin, introducing him to other Impressionist artists and techniques.

By the 1890s, Gauguin's art took a significant turn during his time in Tahiti, then a French colony, where he sought a refuge from the Western civilization, driven by the colonialist tropes of exoticism prevalent at the time.

During that time, he controversially married three adolescent Tahitian girls with whom he later fathered children.

Gauguin's later years in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands were marked by health issues and financial struggles.

His paintings from that period, characterized by vivid colors and Symbolist themes, would prove highly successful among the European viewers for their exploration of the relationships between people, nature, and the spiritual world.

Gauguin's art became popular after his death, partially from the efforts of dealer Ambroise Vollard, who organized exhibitions of his work late in his career and assisted in organizing two important posthumous exhibitions in Paris.

His work was influential on the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, and he is well known for his relationship with Vincent and Theo van Gogh.