Which artist lived in Tahiti. The most beautiful paintings of Paul Gauguin

drama, comedy

Director:

Terry Gilliam

Scenario:

Terry Gilliam, Tony Grisoni, Todd Davis

Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire, ...Christina Ricci, Michael Jeter, Gary Busey, Ellen Barkin, Mark Harmon, Craig Bierko, Katherine Helmond

Two friends are going to Las Vegas. One of them is called Raoul Duke, he is a sports columnist, and he is going to Vegas to cover the famous Mint 400. The second one is called Doctor Gonzo. Or something like that. And Dr. Gonzo is a lawyer, but who cares? And something unimaginable is happening around. Native Nevada is unrecognizable. Only special drugs can save you from all these creatures. Normal guys like our heroes sometimes even feel somehow uncomfortable in this chaos...

Damn ether... after it you are so carried away that you look like a drunkard from an old Irish novel: complete loss of motor-supporting skills, hallucinations and loss of balance, your tongue goes numb, fears begin, your spine fails...

And in the kingdom of freaks there will be one more freak.

The trunk of our car resembled a mobile police drug lab. We had at our disposal two bags of weed, seventy-five balls of mescaline, five strips of blotters of fierce acid, a salt shaker with holes full of cocaine, and an entire intergalactic parade of planets of all sorts of stimulants, trunks, squealers, laughers, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser ", a pint of crude ether and two dozen amyl.

The main misconception of all drug cultures is the idea that someone or something holds the light at the end of the tunnel.

It wasn't difficult to get shirts and drugs, but finding a car and a tape recorder at half past seven in Hollywood was not easy.

Judging by the glassy look, her throat had been cut at some point.

Some people are completely rotten inside.

The only thing that will help you, boy, is peanuts.

We had 2 bags of weed, 75 mescaline tablets, 5 packs of acid, half a salt shaker of cocaine and an endless supply of tranquilizers of all varieties and colors, as well as tequila, rum, a case of beer, a pint of pure ether and amyl nitrate. Not that this is a necessary supply for the trip, but once you start collecting dope, it’s hard to stop...

As a lawyer, I advise you to take the most fast car topless, bright shirts, cocaine, a tape recorder for special music and get out of Los Angeles for at least ten days. The weekend is ruined.

The race has definitely begun. I saw the start and therefore I was confident.

Mother, where did you get that cleaver?
- They sent it from the kitchen. I had nothing to cut the lemons with.
- Lemons? What kind of lemons?
- But they didn’t have any lemons. They don't grow in the desert.

Thanks for the tip, don't worry about me!
- Stop! Stop! Damn it, I'm going to miss him.

One of the prototypes of the Almighty: a supreme mutant, not designed for mass production, too wild to live, too rare to die...

I saw these bastards in the movie Easy Rider, but I didn't think they existed... At least not in such numbers. Really nice people if you get to know them.
- Find out more? Yes, I can smell them anyway.
- Quiet. Don't yell about your ass, otherwise they'll get excited.
- Exactly.

And you hear yourself babbling: “The dogs killed the Pope. I am not guilty".

A drug addict is accustomed to many things, for example, to the sight of his late grandmother crawling with a knife in her teeth...

Damn, what is he doing there? How much acid did it take to make the joint look like a cockroach?

It'll be a fucking miracle if we get to the hotel before you turn into a wild creature.

You can turn your back on the person, but you should never turn your back on the drug. Especially when the drug is in a person. And in the man’s hands is a huge hunting knife.

He who manages to overcome himself will get rid of the pain of existence.

Just give me two hours of sleep.
- I'll give you all the time in the world.

Go easy on the words. The vultures will peck your body before sunset...

These two people in the dock... They gave me LSD and brought me to the hotel. I don't know what they did to me, but I remember that it was terrible.
- What did they give you?
- LSD
- Castration! Double castration!!!

Did you eat all our acid?!
- Yes, I ate it. Music!

As an advocate, I advise you to take a dose from the brown bottle in my shaving kit.

Roses in the rain and a purring cat...
The teapot that glitters like copper on the window...
Mittens, bundles under the spruce tree, comfort...
"FEAR AND HATE IN LAS VEGAS" ...brings peace and tranquility to my heart.
"He who manages to overcome himself will get rid of the pain of existence"
We were near Barstow, on the edge of the desert.
When drugs gradually became a habit.
I remember I said then...
I'm feeling kind of dizzy. Maybe you can lead?
Suddenly we were surrounded by a monstrous noise.
The whole sky was swarming with creatures that looked like huge bats.
They screamed and attacked the car.
Then there was a cry: “Lord Jesus, what the hell is this?”
Shoo! Shoo!
Did you say something?
Doesn't matter. It's your turn to lead.
There was no point in talking about mice. The poor fellow will soon see them himself.
Damn creatures!
OK let's see.
We had 2 bags of weed, 75 mescaline tablets, 5 packs of "acid"...
...Half a salt shaker of cocaine and an endless supply of tranquilizers of all kinds.
And also tequila, rum, a case of beer...
...A pint of pure ether and 2 dozen tablets of amyl nitrate.
Not that this is a necessary supply for the trip...
...But once I started collecting “dope,” it’s hard to stop.
The only concern was the broadcast.
There is nothing more helpless, irresponsible and corrupt...
...than ethereal zombies.
I knew that sooner or later we would switch to this rubbish.
Last year, illegal drugs claimed lives...
...160 American military personnel. 40 of them are in Vietnam.
One puff! One puff to the line!
You sit at the station and take your puff to the limit!
One puff, idiot?
Look, you'll smoke until you reach the bats.

Let's give it a lift.
- What? No!
You can't, there are bats here.
I've never driven in an open car!
Really? Then consider yourself ready.
We are friends, not like others.
Stop talking, or I'll drop those damn leeches on you.
Get in.
I wondered how long we could last before someone...
...Will he start talking and attacking this guy? What will he think then?
After all, this deserted desert was the last refuge of the maniac Manson.
Will he come to that conclusion when my lawyer yells...
...that the car is being attacked by mice or cosmic rays?
If so, you'll have to cut off his head and bury him.
You can't let go.
Otherwise, he will hand us over to some Nazi from the local authorities...
...and they will chase us like dogs.
Lord, did I say that or was I just thinking?
I speak? Did they hear me?

Everything is fine. He just likes your skull shape. - No thanks.
I thought maybe I should talk to him. Explain everything so that he calms down.
Okay, listen. You should understand one thing.
Do you hear me? Great.
Remember once and for all.
This is a dangerous task, and each of us risks our lives.
I'm a journalism professor.
Damn, this is important!

Paul Gauguin. Self-portrait with yellow Christ. 1890

Paul Gauguin can be reproached for many things - infidelity to his official wife, irresponsible attitude towards children, cohabitation with minors, blasphemy, extreme selfishness.

But what does this mean compared to greatest talent, which fate awarded him?

Gauguin is entirely a contradiction, an insoluble conflict and a life similar to an adventure drama. And Gauguin is a whole layer of world art and hundreds of paintings. And a completely new aesthetics that still surprises and delights.

Life is ordinary

Paul Gauguin was born on June 7, 1848 into a very extraordinary family. The future artist's mother was a daughter famous writer. Father is a journalist political magazine.

At 23, Gauguin finds Good work. He becomes a successful stockbroker. But in the evenings and on weekends he draws.

At 25 he marries Dutchwoman Mette Sophie Gad. But their union is not a story about great love and the place of honor as the muse of the great master. For Gauguin felt sincere love only for art. Which the wife did not share.

If Gauguin portrayed his wife, it was rare and quite specific. For example, against the background of a gray-brown wall, turned away from the viewer.

However, the couple will give birth to five children, and, perhaps, besides them, they will soon have nothing in common. Mette considered her husband's painting classes a waste of time. She married a wealthy broker. And I wanted to lead a comfortable life.

Therefore, one day the husband’s decision to quit his job and do only painting was a huge blow for Mette. Their union, of course, will not withstand such a test.

The beginning of art

The first 10 years of Paul and Mette's marriage passed calmly and safely. Gauguin was only an amateur in painting. And he painted only in his free time from the stock exchange.

Most of all, Gauguin was seduced. Here is one of Gauguin's works, painted with typical impressionist reflections of light and a sweet corner of the countryside.

Gauguin actively communicates with such outstanding painters of his time as Cezanne,.

Their influence is felt in early works Gauguin. For example, in the painting “Suzanne Sewing.”

The girl is busy with her own business, and we seem to be spying on her. Quite in the spirit of Degas.

Gauguin does not seek to embellish it. She was hunched over, which made her posture and stomach unattractive. The skin is “ruthlessly” rendered not only in beige and pink, but also in blue and green flowers. And this is quite in the spirit of Cezanne.

And some serenity and tranquility are clearly taken from Pissarro.

The year 1883, when Gauguin turns 35, becomes a turning point in his biography. He left his job at the stock exchange, confident that he would quickly become famous as a painter.

But the hopes were not justified. The accumulated money quickly ran out. Mette's wife, not wanting to live in poverty, goes to her parents, taking the children. This meant the collapse of their family union.

Gauguin in Brittany

Gauguin spends the summer of 1886 in Brittany in northern France.

It was here that Gauguin developed his individual style. Which will change little. And by which he is so recognizable.

The simplicity of the drawing borders on caricature. Large areas of the same color. Bright colors, especially a lot of yellow, blue, red. unrealistic color solutions, when the earth could be red and the trees blue. And also mystery and mysticism.

We see all this in one of Gauguin’s main masterpieces of the Breton period - “The Vision after the Sermon or the Fight of Jacob with the Angel.”

The real meets the fantastic. Breton women in their characteristic white caps view a scene from the Book of Genesis. How Jacob wrestles with the Angel.

Someone is watching (including a cow), someone is praying. And all this against the backdrop of red earth. It’s as if it’s happening in the tropics, oversaturated with bright colors. One day Gauguin will go to the real tropics. Is it because its colors are more appropriate there?

Another masterpiece was created in Brittany - “The Yellow Christ”. This painting is the background to his self-portrait (at the beginning of the article).

Already from these paintings created in Brittany, one can see a significant difference between Gauguin and the Impressionists. The impressioners depicted their visual sensations without introducing any hidden meaning.

But for Gauguin, allegory was important. It is not for nothing that he is considered the founder of symbolism in painting.

Look how calm and even indifferent the Bretons are sitting around the crucified Christ. Thus Gauguin shows that the sacrifice of Christ has long been forgotten. And religion for many has become just a set of obligatory rituals.

Why did the artist depict himself against the background of his own painting with the yellow Christ? For this, many believers did not like him. Considering such “gestures” to be blasphemy. Gauguin considered himself a victim of the tastes of the public, which did not accept his work. Frankly comparing his suffering with the martyrdom of Christ.

And the public actually had a hard time understanding him. In Brittany, the mayor of one town ordered a portrait of his wife. This is how “Beautiful Angela” appeared.

The real Angela was shocked. She could not even imagine that she would be so “beautiful.” Narrow pig eyes. Swollen bridge of the nose. Huge bony hands.

And next to it is an exotic figurine. Which the girl regarded as a parody of her husband. After all, he was shorter than her. It’s surprising that the customers didn’t tear the canvas apart in a fit of anger.

Gauguin in Arles

It is clear that the incident with “Beautiful Angela” did not increase Gauguin’s customers. Poverty forces him to agree to the proposal O working together. He went to see him in Arles, the south of France. Hoping that life together will be easier.

Here they write the same people, the same places. Like, for example, Madame Gidou, the owner of a local cafe. Although the style is different. I think you can easily guess (if you haven’t seen these paintings before) where Gauguin’s hand is and where Van Gogh’s is.

Information about the paintings at the end of the article*

But the domineering, self-confident Paul and the nervous, hot-tempered Vincent could not get along under the same roof. And one day, in the heat of a quarrel, Van Gogh almost killed Gauguin.

The friendship was over. And Van Gogh, tormented by remorse, cut off his earlobe.

Gauguin in the tropics

In the early 1890s, the artist took possession of new idea– organize a workshop in the tropics. He decided to settle in Tahiti.

Life on the islands turned out to be not as rosy as Gauguin initially imagined. The natives received him coldly, and there was little “untouched culture” left - the colonists had long brought civilization to these wild places.

Local residents rarely agreed to pose for Gauguin. And if they came to his hut, they preened themselves in a European manner.

Throughout his life in French Polynesia, Gauguin would search for “pure” native culture, settling as far as possible from the cities and villages developed by the French.

Outlandish art

Undoubtedly, Gauguin discovered a new aesthetics in painting for Europeans. With each ship he sent his paintings to " mainland».

Canvases depicting naked dark-skinned beauties in a primitive setting evoked big interest from the European viewer.

Gauguin scrupulously studied local culture, rituals, mythology. Thus, in the painting “Loss of Virginity” Gauguin allegorically illustrates the pre-wedding custom of the Tahitians.

The bride was kidnapped by the groom's friends on the eve of the wedding. They “helped” him make the girl a woman. That is, essentially the first the wedding night belonged to them.

True, this custom had already been eradicated by missionaries by the time Gauguin arrived. The artist learned about him from stories local residents.

Gauguin also loved to philosophize. This is how his famous painting “Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?".

Gauguin's personal life in the tropics

There are many legends about Gauguin's personal life on the island.

They say that the artist was very promiscuous in his relationships with local mulatto women. He suffered from numerous venereal diseases. But history has preserved the names of some lovers.

The most famous affection was 13-year-old Tehura. A young girl can be seen in the painting “ Spirit of the Dead does not sleep.”

Gauguin left her pregnant and went to France. From this connection a boy, Emil, was born. He was raised by a local man, whom Tehura married. It is known that Emil lived to be 80 years old and died in poverty.

Confession immediately after death

Gauguin never had time to enjoy his success.

Numerous diseases difficult relationship with missionaries, lack of money - all this undermined the painter’s strength. Gauguin died on May 8, 1903.

Here's one of his latest paintings"Spell". In which the mixture of native and colonial is especially noticeable. Spell and cross. Naked and dressed in tight clothing.

And a thin layer of paint. Gauguin had to save money. If you've seen Gauguin's work in person, you've probably noticed this.

Events develop after his death as a mockery of the poor painter. Dealer Vollard organizes a grand exhibition of Gauguin. The salon** devotes an entire room to him...

But Gauguin was not destined to bathe in this grandiose glory. He didn't live to see her just a little...

However, the painter’s art turned out to be immortal - his paintings still amaze with their stubborn lines, exotic color and unique style.

Paul Gauguin. 2015 Artist's collection

There are many works by Gauguin in Russia. All thanks to pre-revolutionary collectors Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin. They brought home many of the master’s paintings.

One of Gauguin’s main masterpieces, “Girl Holding a Fruit,” is kept in St. Petersburg.

Frozen in motionless poses near the huts of women, without moving, a fisherman sits by the boat, a mother and child are squatting. Monumental figures of people are associated with nature and seem to be part of it. There is no sense of movement even in those scenes where the characters, judging by the nature of the composition, are about to hit the road. The atmosphere of the picture is permeated with silence; neither the sound of the wind, nor the rustle of leaves, nor the splash of waves is felt. The group of women sitting on the lawn is also motionless. The artist called the painting “Words, Words” (or “Conversation”), probably referring to the futility of reasoning, without which everything is already clear. Many of the artist’s canvases have strange names: “Nave nave moe”, “Rave te hiti aamu”, “Farari maru-ru”. Some of them are easy to decipher, others still pose a mystery.

Not only the works are unusual, but also the life of Paul Gauguin, full of vicissitudes. He was born in 1848 in Paris and graduated life path in 1903 on the small island of Hiva Oa in Oceania. His father was a journalist, and his mother’s distant relatives belonged to the top of the Spanish-Peruvian nobility and lived in Peru. Memories of the country of childhood, a large, noisy patriarchal family, left a bright mark in the heart of the future artist. They merged with the idea of ​​an idyllic life in the tropics, bright colors and hot sun.

First impressions had a decisive influence on the formation artistic tastes Gauguin, although until the age of 23 nothing foreshadowed his interest in art. The dream of distant countries will not leave the young man even upon his return to France. At the age of sixteen he is hired as a cabin boy on a merchant ship and makes several voyages to the shores South America. After parting with the fleet in 1871, Gauguin settled in Paris.

It may seem that he lives in the interests of an ordinary bourgeois - he becomes wealthy, gets married, and acquires a collection of paintings. The only unusual thing was his sudden passion for art, which gradually but powerfully crowds out other interests from his life. In 1883, he quit his job at the bank; prosperity soon gave way to need. Gauguin is forced to leave Paris, leaving five children and his wife in her homeland in Copenhagen. From now on, his destiny is loneliness, lack of money, wandering, the struggle for recognition, which came only after death.

Gauguin's first student period is closely connected with impressionism artistic direction second half of the 19th century century. But the school of impressionism was only the beginning of the formation of creative interests, as for other post-impressionists - Van Gogh, Cezanne, Seurat. Each of them subsequently went their own way of searching and finding.

Leaving Paris for nature, Gauguin excludes it from his work. The city becomes for him a symbol of the dominance of businessmen. Everything in modern bourgeois culture provokes his protest - the way of life, artistic canons. Wherever the artist goes from now on, dreams of being far from Paris and European civilization everything will turn out differently, accompany his actions and creative ideas.

Brittany, northern France, where Gauguin spent a number of years and created his first masterpieces, soon ceased to satisfy him as an artist. The Breton world is a quiet, mournful world, here the connections between man and nature are reflected not in harmonious correspondence, but in the subjection of people to harsh, hostile elements. His eye, searching for colorful explosions, encounters muted undertones of the Breton earth, granite blocks, clumsy figures in shabby clothes. Dream of countries where the stream flows sunlight, takes possession of the artist. He is convinced that people far from bourgeois civilization live a joyful, natural life in the bosom of generous nature, obeying the eternal laws of existence. Gauguin recalls that the blood of the ancient Incas flows in his veins, and he hopes to find a source of inspiration on an island lost far away in Oceania, this is necessary for his art.

On June 8, 1891, after 63 days of sailing, Gauguin set foot on the land of “Noa Noa” “Fragrant” of the island of Tahiti. The day before he turned 43 years old. The artist was destined to live only twelve more years, but it was during these years that works were created that immortalized his name. Fifteen paintings were also painted there, in Oceania, which now adorn the halls of the Hermitage.

The very first contact with reality showed Gauguin that “civilization” in the person of colonial officials, traders and soldiers had long triumphed in Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. “The Childhood of Humanity,” that idyllic past in search of which he left France, must also be sought here outside the city. The artist settles in south coast islands, in Mataiea, between the sea and a mountain with a huge chasm covered by a mighty mango tree. The first Tahitian paintings were painted here. The artist conveys in them direct impressions of what he saw - typical poses of people, the nature of nature.

Gauguin was struck in Tahiti by the statuesque immobility of people, which evoked a feeling of the immutability of existence and was in full agreement with the artist’s ideas about the primordial world. Therefore, in Gauguin’s paintings, the poses of Tahitians are always calm, stable, and harmonious. The woman holding the fruit (in the composition of the same name) can seem to stand for centuries without moving. This gives a special flavor to the Tahitian title of the painting, “Eu haere ia oe” (“Go!”).

Discarding the random, the artist strives to reveal in the canvases that spiritual world, the mood contained in surrounding nature. Art is a generalization that one must be able to extract from nature, this is Gauguin’s main thesis. And he finds forms and images that most fully convey the characteristic features in the appearance and behavior of the Tahitians. Hence the frequent repetition of similar poses, gestures, faces in a number of paintings, hence several variants of one composition. It would seem that Gauguin’s paintings are simple in plot, nothing happens in them - people sit, stand, lie. But none of them is a repetition of nature, although everything is built on real observations.

The way the artist summarizes his accumulated impressions can be seen in the example of the painting “Tahitian Pastorals”. The word “pastoral” itself takes on a new meaning here. There are no shepherdesses or nymphs in the composition, but two ordinary Tahitian women, one with a pipe at her lips, the other carrying underwear. But the artist transforms these simple details into “a landscape of dreams, entirely created.” Everything froze, as if in a dream, as in an enchanted dream world: a woman froze as she walked, either listening to something or immersed in thought. The orange-red dog is spread out on the ground, the branches of the trees are motionless, echoing the contours of the body of the standing Tahitian woman. The figures of women are separated from each other by a tree, their faces are turned in opposite directions. This, as it were, expands the boundaries of the composition beyond the depicted space, where the main character is music diffused in nature, quiet, barely audible in the midst of complete silence. The artist uses the symbolic, emotional sound of colors. Green next to red, yellow next to red determine the sound of the third, main one, uniting all colors into a common chord, this is green Veronese, which was often used in fresco painting.

The return to France, caused by the desire to show his works, illness, need, did not change anything in Gauguin’s life and artistic beliefs. Oceanic impressions come to life again in Parisian canvases woven from images of the recent past. However, both enemies and friends, with rare exceptions, did not accept Gauguin’s art. His paintings were subjected to harsh, mocking criticism. The artist comes to the decision to leave France forever. In the autumn of 1895 he was again in Tahiti.

Here Gauguin perceives with particular acuteness the beauty of the Tahitian landscape. Contrary to life's adversities the joyful, major sound of colors distinguishes his “Pirogue”: the sun poured like molten gold into the waters of the ocean, emphasizing the blue of the island on the horizon.

The artist’s creativity is enriched by a new, organic perception of the art of the East; he includes elements of art in his arsenal of means of depiction archaic Greece. The artist's eye notices the resemblance primitive cultures different peoples.

The style of ancient Egyptian paintings receives a unique interpretation in The Pie. The slight modeling of the Tahitian's body gives some volume to his figure, obscuring the silhouette characteristic of Egyptian art - with the shoulders turned in front, and the head and legs in profile. The film also shows the influence Japanese prints in clear lines with the help of which space is built. The arm of a lying woman, bent at the elbow, repeats, as if in a mirror image, the gesture of the Tahitian’s hand. A skillful juxtaposition of gestures and poses, a diagonally placed boat and the vertical of a tree define two spatial plans.

Gauguin paints “The Pie,” like many other canvases, on a rough canvas, the uneven, rough surface of which creates the appearance of an old fresco damaged by time. A born monumentalist and decorator, who dreamed of wall paintings even in France, Gauguin widely uses this technique in his paintings.

The painting “Baby” has a different character. It was executed shortly after the death of the artist’s child and his Tahitian wife, Vahine. But, as always, the content of the picture is broader than Gauguin’s personal experience.

1897 is one of the most difficult years in Gauguin’s life: he learns about the death of his daughter left in Europe, experiences physical suffering from illness, and at times loses his sight. Having decided to commit suicide, he paints a monumental canvas - a kind of spiritual testament “Where do we come from, who are we, where are we going?”, the result of the master’s thoughts about human destinies, the eternal cycle of nature.

The Hermitage paintings are also associated with this composition: “Tahitian Landscape with Two Goats” and “Man Picking Fruit from a Tree.”

However, the love of life and art prevails over Gauguin's gloomy thoughts. This is evidenced by numerous works in subsequent years, some of which are associated with the large panel “Preparations for the Holiday.” Among them are two paintings from the Hermitage: “Three Tahitian women on a yellow background” and “Woman with flowers in her hands” (“Month of May”, “Month of Mary”, that is, the awakening of nature, the beginning of spring). The artist returns to the theme of primeval paradise. The landscape is reduced to a conventional golden background, or rather, an environment in which ethereal “paradise” creatures live.

Images human figure and landscapes turn into a play of stylized forms. Decorative pattern is also present in the film “Motherhood” (“Three Women on the Seashore”). Smooth line The drawing combines the figures of Tahitian women with the landscape. A piece of red fabric in the clothes of one of them seems to unwind, turning into a ribbon of coral-colored sand, going deep into the frame. The blue cape on the woman’s shoulder blends seamlessly with the blue of the sea. The theme of motherhood appears as a great mystery of nature, before which women who bring gifts stop in awe.

A surge of creative energy prompted Gauguin in 1901 to take his last trip further into the depths of Oceania, the island of Hiva Oa. The illness makes it impossible for him to leave the house for a long time, and he turns to compositions with flowers, especially sunflowers, more often than before. Gauguin enlivens color harmonies with reverent brush strokes, light blue shadows. It's hard to imagine that the works of two recent years lives were performed by an artist experiencing severe physical suffering and half-blind. In addition, he complicated his existence on the island with a conflict with the colonial authorities, who were quick to crack down on his work. After the artist’s death, not a single work of his remained either in Tahiti or Hiva Oa. The Gauguin Museum in Tahiti, created half a century later, has only photographic reproductions of them.

Like the masters of the past, Gauguin had inexhaustible energy and a breadth of creative interests; he was a painter and draftsman, sculptor and woodcarver, ceramicist, critic and writer. He is one of those masters whose creations are a milestone in the history of art. The artist pulled out of oblivion poetic world Oceanic culture and brought to us the luxury of its forms and colors.

11.10.2010 - 11:04

Very often people judge Paul Gauguin by Somerset Maugham's novel The Moon and the Penny. Main character of this work, a respectable bourgeois, quits his job and family and begins to paint. In Maugham's book, this choice seems truly unexpected. But for Gauguin, who served as the prototype of the rebel artist, leaving the familiar world did not look so strange - in his childhood and youth he had to endure many passions...

Sunny childhood

On June 7, 1848, a child was born in Paris, named Paul-Eugene-Henri. At that time, a revolution was raging in France, in which the boy’s father, Pierre Clovis Gauguin, editor of the newspaper National, was directly involved. Events did not develop in the most in the best possible way, and Clovis was forced to seek refuge abroad. He decided to go with his family to Peru, where his wife’s relatives, who belonged to a noble local family, lived. But on the way, Clovis suddenly died, and Alina Gauguin arrived in Peru as a widow - without money, with two children in her arms - tiny Paul and his older sister Maria.

Alina's relatives greeted her kindly and gave her shelter without any conditions. Paul forever remembered the years spent in Peru, the beauty of the local nature - snow-capped mountains, fast rivers, impenetrable forests...

When the boy was 7 years old, his mother decided that the children should receive an education in Europe. Paul ended up in the theological seminary of Orleans. It was very difficult for him to move from free life in Peru to a measured and insipid existence in an educational institution characterized by strict discipline and a stuffy atmosphere... Later he wrote: “It was there that I learned from a young age to hate hypocrisy, false virtues, and denunciations.”

He spent 5 years in this institution, and then ended up in a private boarding house in Paris. Boring classes, walks in the yard, teachers dissatisfied with fate... The boy recalled his free childhood and dreamed of returning there again, to pristine nature.

And his dream soon came true. Gauguin had barely turned 18 when he ran away from home and became a simple sailor in the merchant fleet. The endless ocean changed exotic countries- with a riot of colors, smells, sounds... He visited Peru, where he left happy childhood, in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, traveled all over the world.

Later, Gauguin was called up to serve in the navy and ended up in the north - Denmark and Norway. Cold winds and eternal dampness replaced the warmth of the south, which caused Gauguin very difficult feelings. It was then that he began to paint, trying to convey his dreams and sad thoughts on canvas.

Artist at night

After finishing his service, Paul went to Paris, dreaming of a calm and settled life - several years of travel and hardships tired him. Gauguin got a job at a bank, where he began to learn financial wisdom. Tanned and weather-beaten sailor enormous growth surprisingly easily delved into all the intricacies of the complex banking business, and soon made a good career in it, acquired his own account, housing and all the signs of a prosperous person.

No one knew that this self-possessed young man in the evenings exchanged his white collar for an artist’s blouse spattered with paint. Gauguin felt a passionate craving for painting, strove to convey on canvas all his impressions, all the riot of colors that he saw in his travels. But he understood that he was an amateur and was timid in his creative attempts.

When Paul turned 25, he met Matt-Sophie Gad, a Danish woman who came to France on holiday. A whirlwind romance soon ended with a wedding. The young wife was pleased with her husband’s strong position in society, his wealth, and the future was painted in the most rosy colors for her. Only one thing surprised Matt - Paul’s strange passion for drawing. Gauguin continued his painting studies, painting almost everything he saw around him. His newborn son became Gauguin's favorite model - he is depicted in famous painting"Child's Dream"

Mastery young man grew, the paintings no longer looked like the daubs of an amateur, and Gauguin gradually became part of the close circle of artists. Working at the bank increasingly interfered with creativity - Paul’s head was crowded with images, and instead he was forced to do boring calculations all day.
And in 1883, Gauguin made a decision that shocked his colleagues, family friends and his wife, who by that time had already become the mother of five children.

Colors of Martinique

Gauguin quit his job and decided to devote himself entirely to creativity. He sacrificed not only himself, but also his family to art - its former prosperity was lost, luxury mansion I had to leave and sell some of the furniture. There was practically nothing to live on, and Gauguin was subjected to completely justified attacks from his wife. Op wrote: “The isolation has been the most complete for six months now. Naturally, for the family I am a monster who does not earn money, and I am subject to reproaches. Naturally, in connection with painting, because of which I am not a famous financier.”

The family soon realized that Paul's decision was firm, and his wife decided to leave with the children for Copenhagen. Gauguin tried for a long time to find a compromise between his desires and the needs of his family and made a choice - art. After a prosperous life - hunger and cold, instead loving family- proximity to strange personalities, a bohemian whirlwind of passions, relationships, semi-ghostly relationships... But he is obsessed with art, ready to live on bread and water and, finally, completely devote himself to his favorite business.

Meanwhile, Gauguin’s paintings are already being noticed by connoisseurs, he is becoming recognized master. But this triumph was not enough for him; he wanted something completely unusual. If he was able to change his life so radically, leaving his family and work, then another change is just trifles. And Gauguin decided to commit another shocking act. He was about to leave Europe, get closer to the very heart of nature and learn all its secrets, gain new strength and colors for his creativity.
In 1887, Gauguin persuaded his friend, the artist Charles Laval, to go with him to the island of Martinique, where they got there not without adventure - so, “on the way,” Gauguin got a job as a navvy for the construction of the Panama Canal. Finally, the friends reached fabulous Martinique, and its bright colorful world gave Gauguin new strength - his paintings of that period seem to be windows into a beautiful world.

Death from syphilis

Friends return from Martinique to Paris, but Gauguin continues to dream about distant beautiful countries. In 1891, Gauguin decides to leave for Tahiti, where, in his opinion, life fully corresponds to his ideals. Friends, already accustomed to his eccentricities, see him off with parting words and collect money for his journey and life. Gauguin arrived in Tahiti, settled in a small hut, bought himself a Tahitian wife and began to live the way he had dreamed all his life - in harmony with himself, others and art. All of Gauguin's paintings, painted at that time, are recognized masterpieces - both his skill and a new look at the world and peace of a creator who found himself merged in them.

But as time passed, the artist became tired and began to yearn for his family and old friends, for intellectual communication. He returned to Paris, but no one was really waiting for him here. Gauguin is experiencing a severe mental crisis. Without money, no one needs him, he wanders around Paris, drinks, buys prostitutes. He soon contracted syphilis and decided to leave for the island of Hiva Oa to die among the natives in the lap of nature. Before leaving, Gauguin, according to the recollections of his friends, said that he had been an unhappy person all his life, that he had sacrificed too much to art and now he understands it...

Gauguin lived on the island in a small hut, suffering from pain, gradually decomposing alive. He died on May 8, 1903, according to some versions - from too large a dose of morphine, deliberately administered. After his death, his property was sold at auction, and everything that seemed like rubbish was thrown into the trash - letters, sketches, notes...

Gauguin's paintings, once priced at a few measly francs, now sell for millions of dollars. The terrible sacrifice that Gauguin made to art bore fruit. It’s just that completely different people eat them.

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