The Art Institute of Chicago Paul Gauguin Author(s): Carl O. Schniewind Source: Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951), Vol. 43, No. 3 (Sep. 15, 1949), pp. 43-51 Published by: The Art Institute of Chicago Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4111888 Accessed: 27-04-2016 15:57 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Art Institute of Chicago is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951) This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:57:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ) 1) LLI L U THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO Te Atua, The Gods. Woodcut in two colors from two states by Gauguin VOLUME XLIII, NUMBER 3 SEPTEMBER 15, 1949 This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:57:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Te Atua, The Gods. Woodcut by Gauguin. Larger plate PAUL GAUGUIN Paul Gauguin's reputation is firmly established His sensitive, unstable nature was as un- as one of the most prominent painters of the adapted to the economic and social intricacies Post-Impressionist period in French art. His of European life as it was to the low moral name has become synonymous with exotic, standards of a colonial bureaucracy with its tropical subjects. He is the European who, disastrous effects on the natives for whose very fleeing from its overdeveloped culture and the existence he became a self-appointed, vigor- complicity and artificiality of its life, sought ous, yet hopelessly ineffective, crusader. He simplicity by a desperate attempt to identify dreamed of a life in which he would be free himself with the life of the Polynesian natives of all economic worries, surrounded by almost of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. Although godlike natives, where he could devote his the natives loved him, he remained to a degree energies entirely to being an artist. There he as much an outsider of their society as he was thought he could avoid the necessity of selling an outsider of European society. The attempted his work to a public which did not understand transition from one kind of life to another was him, yet he still sought recognition in far away not easy for this restless, querulous Frenchman Europe. The colonial regime introduced many and indeed the attempt, in final analysis, prob- economic problems of European living into a ably cost him his life. land which, if left alone, would have been self 44 This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:57:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms sufficient. Finding himself confronted with Another more powerful influence was the crude some of the same problems in the Pacific as he but humanly moving religious sculpture which had in Europe, Gauguin's life ended on a note was scattered throughout the Bretagne. It was of bitter and complete frustration. the remainder of a Romanesque folk art which Paul Gauguin was born in Paris in 1848 on still held its spell over the sturdy seafaring peo- June 7. Biographically his life may roughly ple of that semi-isolated peninsula. As church be reviewed in four principal periods. The first. sculpture and particularly as ancient wayside his formative years when, after having estab- shrines these simplified hardy pieces of carved lished himself as a successful stockbroker, he stone made a deep impression on Gauguin in decided at the comparatively late age of thirty- his formative years. Much later, during his two or three to enter upon an artist's career. He second and final stay in Tahiti, the Breton spent much of this time in Normandy and the "Calvary" was to appear repeatedly in his Bretagne. Some of his earliest memories were paintings and prints. of Peru where he stayed with his mother when In these unsophisticated surroundings, away he was a child and these memories encouraged, from Paris, a group of artists formed a new perhaps, his innate restlessness. He decided to movement in French art, known as the School go to Martinique, a French possession on the of Pont Aven, or as the "Symbolists". Having East coast of the Americas. In April, 1887, he become a leader of this school, Gauguin left France and after several months of inten- wanted to bring a new message to the artistic sive work, stimulated by the novelty of his circles of Paris. Attempts at exhibitions in surroundings, returned to Paris towards the official Salons chiefly failed and the critics end of the same year. Although ill, he then attacked him mercilessly. Gauguin's small sav- spent a short period during which he was com- ings were soon consumed and his wife returned pletely happy. His early work, leaning at first to her native Denmark together with his chil- towards that of the Impressionists, began to dren. Poverty stricken and discouraged, his show a radical departure from the then domi- mind turned to the life of those natives who nating school of French painting. Relying less were beyond the orbit of European culture. In and less on effects of light and problems of April, 1891, he left for Tahiti where he lived changing forms due to changing light, he be- and worked until September, 1893. came more engrossed in the immediate rela- This first Tahitian trip initiated the second tionship of one form to another, in the pattern and clearly decisive period in Gauguin's life. of a painted surface. This interest led him The lessons he had learned in Brittany, the quite naturally to experiments with the cre- symbolic tendencies developed in his art, fell ation of three dimensional forms. upon fruitful and stimulating ground in the Among the group of arists whom he joined new tropical surroundings of Tahiti. He felt at Pont Aven in Brittany was a ceramist. that at last he had found an environment and Gauguin applied himself to various ceramic mode of existence that would lead him away techniques and, while the results were anything from the intricate European life to a new and but satisfactory in themselves, they had a simple one. He seemed to practice what the lasting influence on him. They led him more great eighteenth century French philosopher, and more to express himself through large Jean-Jacques Rousseau, had preached a cen- simplified forms which, by their generalization, tury before. took on the meaning of a language of symbols. After Martinique. Gauguin's colors became Published quarterly September 15, November 15, February 1, April 1, by The Art Institute of Chicago at 1009 Sloan Street, Crawfordsville, Indiana. Correspondence pertaining to subscription may be sent to 1009 Sloan Street, Crawfordsville. Indiana. or to the Chicago Office at Adams Street and Michigan Avenue. Entered as second class matter January 17, 1918. at the Post Office at Crawfordsville, Indiana, under the Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, author- ized on June 28, 1918. Subscription for the Bulletin included in the membership fee: otherwise $1.00 per year. Volume XLIII, Number 3. 45 This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:57:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Mahana Atua, Nourishment for the Gods. Woodcut by Gauguin Mahana No Atua, The Day of the Gods. Oil painting by Gauguin This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:57:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Nave Nave Fenua, Wonderful Earth. Woodcut by Gauguin This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:57:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms richer, warmer, but in Tahiti his whole style large quantity. In addition to the set of twelve underwent a radical change. Subject matter, woodcuts mentioned above he made, before composition and color were altered completely. returning to Tahiti, eleven others, varying in The lessons learned from the simple peasant art size. Although one is quite large, the others of Brittany were transformed into what seemed are smaller and, on the whole, less ambitious in a Tahitian idiom to the European. The artist concept, but all of them show an extraordinary increasingly devoted his time to carving simple concentration of Gauguin's talent. He experi- images in wood, probably inspired by Tahitian mented continuously with the surface texture crafts. On his return from Tahiti in September, of the wood, with various methods of applying 1893, he became greatly preoccupied with ink to the block and with the application of printing from wood. This was the beginning varying pressure in pulling the proofs. Thus of a technique in which he produced some of he compiled a small group of impressions his best work. The immediate reason may have which are absolutely unique in the history of been a fractured bone in his foot; he became printmaking. Before leaving for Tahiti in 1895 embroiled in a street affair with two sailors in he entrusted twenty-one of the most precious Brittany and there was a brawl.