Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was born in Paris on 7 June, 1848, the son of Clovis Gauguin, a Republican editor, and his wife Aline Marie Chazal. In 1849, after Louis Napoléon came to power, the family emigrated to Peru. Clovis Gauguin died on the way. His widow and 2 children (Paul and his elder sister Mari) stayed in Lima with their rich relatives and did not return to France until 1855. On coming back they settled with the uncle Isidore Gauguin in Orléans. In 1865, Paul became a sailor and spent the next three years voyaging between France and South America, and made a voyage around the world. In 1868, Paul joined the navy, which he left after the Franco-Prussian War. Instead, he started to work as a broker’s agent in Paris. The first known drawings by Gauguin dated 1871, when he was in his late twenties. In the broker’s agency Gauguin met and befriended Claude-Emile Schuffenecker (1851-1934), a shy clerk, who shared Gauguin’s interest in painting, they both started to study painting at the Colarossi Academy, worked together en plein-air and in the Louvre and met Parisian artists.
1875. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
1875. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.
1879. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
1879. Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary.
c.1879-80. Watercolor on paper. Private collection.
1880. Oil on canvas. Ny Carlsberg-Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1882. Pastel. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, France.
1882. Oil on canvas. Collection of Otto Krebs, Holzdorf. Now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1883. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
1884. Oil on canvas. Collection of Otto Krebs, Holzdorf. Now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1885. Oil on canvas. Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan, Italy.
1885. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.
1886. Black chalk and pastel. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
c.1886. Oil on canvas. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.
1886. Oil on canvas. Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
1886. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.
1887. Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum Vincent van Goug, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
1887. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
1887. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
1887. Pastel. Rijksmuseum Vincent van Goug, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Henri Perruchot. La vie de Gauguin. Hachette. Paris. 1961.
Paul Gauguin. His Life and Art. by A. Kantor-Gukovskaya. Moscow-Leningrad. 1965.
French Paintings from the Hermitage, Leningrad. Aurora. Leningrad. 1975.
Gauguin as viewed from Russia. Moscow. 1990.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal by Paul Gauguin. Dover Pubns, 1985.
Paul Gauguin: An Erotic Life by Nancy Mowll Mathews. Yale Univ Pr, 2001.
Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South by Douglas Druick, Peter Kort Zegers. Thames & Hudson, 2001.
The Way to Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa, Natasha Wimmer. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2003.
Gauguin's Intimate Journals by Paul Gauguin, Van Wyck Brooks, Emil Gauguin. Dover Publications, 1997.
Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art by Deborah Silverman. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2000.