Thursday, February 2, 2012

Drawing Parallels: Paul Gauguin

The most recent issue of the New Yorker (Febraury 6, 2012. Vol. LXXXVII) had the following cartoon featured. 


The caption reads: "I need to leave you and the children and go to Tahiti if I'm ever going to be a truly great accountant."

Reminds me of a certain artist. 

Below: Paul Gauguin. 


It's impossible to talk about Gauguin without mentioning the scandal he left behind him. In 1873 Gauguin married a Danish woman and over the next ten years they had five children together. During this time he worked as a stockbroker in Paris. Gauguin began painting as a hobby. However Gauguin always harbored a nostalgia for exotic places and finally in 1893 he abandoned his wife and children and set sail for Tahiti never to return. In Tahiti he hoped to gain inspiration and pursue art full-time. 

Here are some of the pieces he created. 



I have never heard anyone, professionals, scholars, etc... ever speak of Gauguin without disdain in their voice.

- Grace

2 comments:

  1. huh! i never knew this about him! i just viewed all of his paintings as the work of a passionate man who sought out beauty and the exotic in the name of art. which is still true, i guess, in light of him leaving his family to pursue his work. but still! at what cost, gauguin?? at what cost!

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