Paul Gauguin Research Paper

Paul Gauguin - Paul Gauguin was a French post-impressionist artist whose work mainly went unappreciated until after his death in 1903. It wasn’t until 1940 that his work began to see worldwide success and gain appreciation by larger audiences. Today, Gauguin is one of the most well-known artists and his paintings rank among some of the most expensive in the world. Some of Gauguin’s most notable works include Tahitian Women on the Beach (1891) and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897). Gauguin is now recognized for his innovative and meaningful use of colour, and his unique style that was different from other artists’ of his time. Two of his post-impressionism artworks, Vision After the Sermon (1888) and When Will You Marry? (1892), are featured on the next page.

Paul Gaugin was born in Paris on June 7th 1848. When Gauguin was only a young child his family moved to Peru. When he got older, he joined the merchant marines

Paul Gauguin was born on June 7th, 1848 and passed away on May 8th, 1903, due to syphilis. Paul was a French-post impressionist. Paul was a stockbroker, but on his free time, he dedicated his time to art. Paul was known and recognized for his experimental use of colors. Many people though did not really appreciate him until after his death. He painted a self-portrait in 1888, called “Self-portrait dedicated to Carrier”. This picture was an oil painting on canvas.

The violent clash of patriarchal Europe with the Americas and other parts of the world during the colonial period directly caused a degree of cross cultural diffusion that is evident within art. During this period of immense change, european artists sought to innovate and take a modern approach to their work, breaking away from the established mold. Abigail Solomon-Godeau write of one such artist from this period, Paul Gauguin, not only for his experimentation into expressionism but for the relation to which he viewed the native people of Tahiti, regarding them from a primitivist lens, appropriating much of their culture, and the sexualization of women.

Gauguin was originally from Europe, and viewed the Tahitian people as highly primitive, which as we known from lectures, was what many colonisers thought of African and Asian countries, because

There is a TV show called Outlander, based on a novel of the same name that is about the Scottish Jacobite uprising of 1745. The uprising was orchestrated by Charles Edward Stuart, Pretender to the throne of Great Britain. However, at the disastrous battle of Culloden in 1746, Stuart and his Jacobites were defeated. The result of the failed uprising brought harsh sanctions against the Scottish, including a ban on wearing traditional Highland kilts. This oppression led to many Scots leaving their home in search for a better life. One of these immigrants was a merchant named Alexander Greig, who settled in Norway, purportedly because of its many similarities to his native Scotland. Alexander, who changed his last name to Grieg, so that it would be correctly pronounced in Norwegian,

As Whistler applied copious paint to the Spanish leather he disregarded his instructions. On December 17, 1893, his perplexed friend the painter Paul Gaugin arrived. His sanguine countenance had its inevitable effect on the others. The tomb was ostentatious he much preferred classical simplicity. Thinking carefully the neophyte answered twenty-two questions.

Edvard Grieg was a composer in the Romantic period. He was born on June 15th 1843 in Bergen, Norway. His mother was his first music teacher, who was a beautiful pianist. In fact, almost everyone in Edvard’s family was a musician, so they were perfectly okay with him wanting to become a musician. When Edvard was in his late teenage years, he traveled to study at the best music conservatory in Europe. After he graduated, he moved to Denmark, where he met and married Nina, a singer. Later they had a child named Alexandria, who died after only 13 months. Grieg performed his music all over Europe, however, every summer he went back to Norway to compose new music for the fall and winter performances. Edvard died on September 4th 1907 in Bergen, Norway,

Henri Rousseau, born in May 21, 1844, was a self-taught artist who started his artistic career when he was forty. He began his life working as a clerk, then he joined the French army after being accused of stealing money from his employer. He later moved to Paris and obtained a job working for the French Customs Office, and it was there that he began painting part-time. It was really this background of his that allowed his paintings to be original and uninfluenced by traditional painting techniques. Since he was a self-taught artist and had no significant experience with painting, he had the freedom to paint as he perceived and as he imagined. Henri Rousseau was a man who liked to exaggerate his life to make himself seem adventurous and exciting. He made up stories about his time in the military and overstated his importance in the Customs office where he worked. This was also reflected in his artwork where manipulated the painting to emphasize beauty and excitement.

On September 13, 1821 Pope Pius VII with the bull Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo condemned the Carbonari as a Freemason secret society, excommunicating its

Jacques Cousteau was a man of all trades. He was a photographer, inventor of diving devices, undersea explorer, soldier, writer, oceanographer, and documentary host (“Jacques Cousteau biography,” n.d.). He developed the first ever trademarked SCUBA device titled the Aqua-Lung (“Invention; the Aqua lung,” n.d.). SCUBA is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Cousteau made his grand entrance June 11, 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France. Cousteau was a sickly child, who the doctors told not to participate in any strenuous activity. He learned to swim at age 4 and soon developed a love for the sea as well as developing a mechanical aptitude (“Jacques Cousteau biography - life,” n.d.).

Realism is a type of art that illustrates how the world and people really look. “Realism started in the mid-19th century in which figures and scenes are depicted as they are experienced or might be experienced in everyday life (Fine Arts).” Gustave Courbet was the first person to introduce Realism into the art world. He was a French painter who painted Romanticism before discovering Realism (Introduction to the Artistic Style of Realism). He inspired many other painters such as Edouard Manet and John Sargent.

Jean Antoine Watteau was born October 10, 1684 in France. He was a French rococo artist in the 18th century during the Rococo art movement. Rococo painting was light, airy, frilly and bejeweled, which is fitting as it was intended for the powerful aristocracy and wealthy upper-middle class (Biography of Jean Antonio Watteau 2017). Watteau gained his love or interest in theater and ballet after studying with Claude Guillot who painted scenery for stages. He enjoyed the curved lines and decorative nature scenes, which enhanced his love for the theater and fascination with design. He developed a unique style of painting with an elegance, which he gained critical attention. Watteau started painting scenes of social merrymaking and then lead him into the more sorrowful characters.

Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840 and would become known as one of France’s famous painters. Monet is often attributed with being the leading figure of the style of impressionism; but this was not always the case. Monet started out his career as a caricaturist, showing great skill. Eventually “Monet began to accompany [Eugène] Boudin as the older artist . . . worked outdoors, . . . this “truthful” painting, Monet later claimed, had determined his path as an artist.” Monet’s goal took off as his popularity grew in the mid 1870s after he switched from figure painting to the landscape impressionist style. William Seitz supports this statement through his quote, “The landscapes Monet painted at Argenteuil between 1872 and 1877 are

The inspiration to cross-reference art that came from other cultures is believed to come from Paul Gauguin, a French post-impressionist artist. His prints and paintings were inspired by the native cultures of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, places where he spent his final years.