7 June: Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin, the French post-impressionist painter, was born on this date in 1848. Here are some facts about him.

1. Gauguin’s full name was Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin.
2. His parents were Clovis Gauguin and Alina Maria Chazal. His father was a journalist; his mother had relations in Peru. When the newspaper Clovis worked for was suppressed by French authorities in 1850, he left France with his young family for Peru, where he hoped to continue working as a journalist. Sadly, he never got there - he died of a heart attack during the journey. Alina's family took in the young widow and her children. One of their relatives by marriage was president of Peru, so the young Paul enjoyed a privileged upbringing for a few years until Peruvian civil conflicts in 1854 meant they fell from power. Hence, Paul returned to France with his mother at the age of seven.
3. He served in the French navy for two years. Hence he only learned of his mother's death months after it happened because he was at sea. He only received the letter from his sister when he landed in India.
4. At 23 he got a job as a stockbroker. He took up painting as a way to relax in his time off. In 1882 the Paris stock market crashed and he decided to paint full time.
5. He married a Danish woman called Mette-Sophie Gad and moved to Copenhagen where he worked as a tarpaulin salesman. It wasn't a success. The Danes were not interested in French tarpaulins especially since the man selling them didn't speak Danish. The marriage lasted 11 years in which they had five children. His wife asked him to leave in 1885 and he went back to Paris.
6. He was a close friend of Vincent Van Gogh. In fact, van Gogh idolised him. They corresponded on the subject of art and spent nine weeks painting together. However, at one point Gauguin decided to leave. Van Gogh threatened him with a razor blade. Gauguin left, and later that night, van Gogh cut off his ear. Art historians in Germany have come up with a theory that van Gogh didn't actually cut his own ear off at all, but that Gauguin did it with a sword during an argument. The trust was hidden because Gauguin didn't want to go to jail and van Gogh was still infatuated with him in spite of it all and willingly kept a pact of silence.
7. Gauguin set sail for Tahiti on 1 April 1891, promising his wife he would return a rich man and make a fresh start. He sent nine of the paintings he did there home, and they were exhibited in a joint exhibition with van Gogh. Gauguin was encouraged by the reception these works received and planned to return home with several more. However, he'd run out of money by now and had to get a grant from the French government in order to get home. Back in France, he continued painting Tahitian subjects and started saving up to go back.
8. In June 1895 Eugene Carriere arranged a cheap passage for Gauguin back to Tahiti. Gauguin took it, and never came back to Europe.
9. He did reasonably well as an artist after that, although he did take a desk job for a while. Eventually he was able to build himself a spacious house with a studio. He started a relationship with a local girl, Pahura a Tai, aged 14. They had two children, but one died in infancy. Their son survived, and Gauguin may still have descendants living in Tahiti.
10. Gauguin's health deteriorated. He suffered from sores on his legs which he put down to eczema caused by the tropical climate but his biographers believe it was probably late stage syphilis. He died of a stroke in 1903.

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