7 most important works of Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin he is one of the greats representatives of post-impressionism, his life trajectory being very similar to that of other artists of the time, such as his friend Vicent Van Gogh: live without any recognition and receive the praise of critics and achieve their works prices of record. Gauguin, born in Paris in 1848 and died in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, began in Impressionism to evolve towards synthesis and symbolism and be one of the great influences for movements such as the Fauvism (1998-1908)

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we review the most important works of Paul Gauguin to learn about his life and the keys to his pictorial style.

Index

1. Characteristics of the works of Paul Gauguin
2. Vaugirard's Market Gardens, 1897
3. Van Gogh painting sunflowers, 1888
4. Night Cafe, Arles, 1888
5. Vision after the sermon, 1888
6. Yellow Christ, 1889
7. Women of Tahiti, 1891
8. Where we come from? About us? Where are we going?, 1897

Before entering fully into the most important works of Paul Gauguin, we are going to know the main keys of his style. And it is that Gauguin was one of the great figures of the School of Pont-Avens, a school characterized by synthesis, the arbitrary and intense application of color, symbolist themes and inspiration in primitive art and Japanese prints.

Gauguin was a great traveler, traveling from France to Lima, French Brittany, Panama, France again, to end his days in Tahiti, where he carried out a very important part of his work. His travels inspired much of his work, the most great women protagonists of his works.

Gauguin developed his own style characterized by a expressive use of color with great contrast and the use of outlines in black or cloisonnism. Some works that reflect Gauguin's taste for compositional simplicity. Thus, Gauguin made landscapes and nudes full of simplicity and full of symbolism, features that greatly influenced modern art of the 20th century.

The Gardens of Vaugirard market It is one of the most important works of Paul Gauguin.

Here we see a landscape of Gauguin's first stage, at which time the author was under the influence of the works of Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne.

The work was done from his house reproducing the views of these gardens located south of the Seine River in Paris.

Although the relationship with Van Gogh It started because of the mutual admiration they had for each other, it ended in a way to fight when they lived together in the Yellow House of Arles in which they dedicated themselves to painting and collaborating.

One of the paintings resulting from that time is this one in which he shows us the Dutch painter painting.

From the same period in which it was installed in Van Gogh's house, this arles bar painting where they spent their nights with drunks and prostitutes.

Van Gogh had already painted this café, but Gauguin was inclined to paint by Madame Ginoux, showing in the background the pool table and some of the usual characters of the café.

In the foreground, and in front of the woman, Gauguin paints a simple still life. Van Gogh became obsessed with the pose adopted by the woman.

The vision behind the sermon or Jacob's wrestling with the angel it's the first symbolist work of Gauguin, marking the end of his relationship with Impressionism. Thus, Gauguin abandons thick brushstrokes for flat brushstrokes and begins to be interested in symbolic themes and arbitrary and bright colors.

work of the Breton period, on the Vision after the sermon Gauguin shows in the foreground several Breton women in traditional clothing and praying while having a vision, Jacob wrestling with an angel. To do this, the painter leaves aside the traditional perspective and introduces flat figures, flat colors, delimiting the contours or cloisonnism or cloisionism. Gauguin was also inspired by the japanese print.

This work by Paul Gauguin already belongs to the Cloisonism, a technique inspired by Japanese prints and in a medieval enameling technique called cloisonne. This technique consists of creating flat areas of color, delineating the edges with black and giving up the classic perspective.

The yellow christ he paints it at Pont-Aven, being one of the few paintings with a religious theme that the painter made. Gauguin reproduces the typical Calvary model, a Christ and three Marys, although the women are peasants and the landscape is changed to the countryside of the Brittany area.

The color is vibrant, flat and the face of Christ is a kind of primitive mask.

We are before a work from the Tahiti stage, specifically during his first stay in Polynesia. Gauguin shows us the women of the island and the way the young women dress and the primitivism and beauty of their faces.

The color is more intense and vivid, opting for warm ranges and flat brushstrokes, outlining the figures with the technique of cloisonné.

We finish this review of the most important works of Paul Gauguin with this work. And it is that, after the death of one of his daughters in 1987, desperate due to debts and health problems, Gauguin dedicated himself to doing this great work, a authentic artistic testament.

She is the first large-scale work of the painter, capturing in it his pictorial and philosophical ideology. The painter shows a progression from the left occupied by a mummy covering his ears to the right, where there is a baby as an image of innocence. In the central area there is a man who picks a fruit that symbolizes temptation.

If you want to read more articles similar to Paul Gauguin: most important works, we recommend that you enter our category of History.

• DE JUAN HERNÁNDEZ, Pilar María, et al. Gauguin: Paradise Lost. 2018.
• GAUGUIN, Paul. Writings of a Savage. Akal Editions, 2008.
• PUIGBO, Juan Jose. Life and work of Eugene-Henri-Paul Gauguin.(1848-1903). Medical Gazette of Caracas, 2006, vol. 114, no 3, p. 226-255.
• SANCHEZ DURA, Nicholas. The artist as ethnographer?: the Gauguin case, so far, so close. 1998.
• SARRIUGARTE GOMEZ, Iñigo. The Black Legend of a Cursed Painter: Paul Gauguin. Reason and word, 2003, no 36, p. 21.
• SOLANA, Guillermo (ed.). Gauguin and the origins of symbolism. Editorial NEREA, 2004.