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Artists in 60 Seconds: Paul Gauguin

French Painter

By Shelley Esaak, About.com

Photo RMN / © Hervé Lewandowski; Used with permission

Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903). Self-Portrait with Hat, ca. 1893-94. Oil on canvas. 18 1/16 x 15 in. (46 x 38 cm). Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Photo RMN / © Hervé Lewandowski

Movement, Style, School or Type of Art

Post-Impressionism

Date and Place of Birth

June 7, 1848, Paris, France

Life

Gauguin, in what we now might call a "mid-life crisis", left his career and family to pursue painting, traveling as far as Tahiti to "find himself". Inspired by the South Pacific, Gauguin moved away from Impressionism (and the style of his mentor, Pissarro) and became known for using flat forms and wild color. His best known works all came from this later period.

Important Works

  • Tahitian Women, 1891
  • Nevermore, 1897
  • Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, 1897

Date and Place of Death

May 8, 1903, Marquesas, French Polynesia

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