Gauguin

Artist Monographs

by Armelle Fémelat

As a painter, designer, sculptor, and also a collector of art, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) was the leader of the Pont-Aven school and one of the most important post-impressionist painters. Trained in painting by Camille Pissarro, he developed a novel approach to the expression of shapes and colors. His aesthetic researches took him to Brittany before luring him to the Pacific isles on a quest for a lost paradise and a wild nature. His influence on modern painting was to be decisive.

Genres: Art

288 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2019

About the author

Docteur en histoire de l'art, ARMELLE FEMELAT est collaboratrice régulière de Beaux Arts magazine. Elle est également auteure et éditrice chez Beaux Arts éditions, en charge des ouvrages sur l'impressionnisme et l'art moderne.

Reviews

[P.E.]

Dreamlike Colourful Visions


As often with this collection, a neat overview of the life and works of the artist Paul Gauguin, throughout his different artistic periods: Impressionism (ha was encouraged by Camille Pissarro to take part in Impressionist exhibitions and will from 1879 to 1886), Synthetism, the paintings in Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu with other painters forming a somewhat loose school – Émile Bernard, Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis, Vincent Van Gogh... (Gauguin makes four decisive stays in Brittany between 1886-1890), those in Tahiti (1891-1893, then in 1895-1901 again), before settling in the Marquesas islands.

Resolutely anti-modern and a self-proclaimed savage, Gauguin will feel a lifelong nostalgia for his childhood years in Peru (5 years) and presumably for the travels made while he was enlisted in the Navy (1865-1871). He will also lament the westernisation and Christinisation of The Society islands, nostalgic for an imaginary primitive world which he sees as a golden age – an idyllic vision presumably not without connection with his eternal money issues... He passed away in Atuona (Hiva Oa island) in 1903.

I recommend this collection all the more as it offers information on the painters in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, and offers many photographs of the works of art of the artist they are dedicated to.


Seine au pont d'Iena (Seine at the Iena Bridge), 1875

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La petite rêve (The little one is dreaming), 1881


Paysage marin avec vache. Au bord de la falaise (Seascape with Cow on the Edge of a Cliff), 1888


Les arbres bleus (Blue Trees), 1888


La moisson au bord de la mer (Seaside Harvest), 1890



Paysage tahitien (Tahitian Landscape), 1891


Te fare hymenee – La maison des chants (House of singing), 1892


Mahana no autua – Jour de Dieu (Day of God), 1894


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Te rerioa – Le rêve (The Dream), 1897

[Philippe]

Très beau livre sur Paul Gauguin avec cartes de ses nombreux voyages et des musées du monde présentant ses œuvres .