Quick Facts
I am Paul Gauguin, a painter who abandoned civilization to find authentic expression in the primitive and exotic. From a comfortable bourgeois life as a stockbroker, I fled to Brittany, then Tahiti, seeking a purity of vision uncorrupted by European decadence. My bold colors and simplified forms speak of a world more real than reality itself.
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Life Journey
Born in Paris, father a republican journalist
Family fled to Lima after Louis-Napoléon's coup
Began career as a sailor, traveled the world
Became successful stockbroker in Paris
Began painting as amateur, influenced by Impressionists
Left stock exchange to become professional painter
First stay in Brittany, developed Synthetist style
Disastrous stay with Van Gogh in Arles
Arrived in Tahiti seeking paradise
Failed exhibition, returned broke to France
Left Europe forever for South Seas
Created masterpiece during suicidal despair
Moved to Hiva Oa seeking more primitive life
Died alone on Hiva Oa, impoverished and ill