The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (182 page)
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Authors: Ian Chilvers
Gauguin , Paul
(1848–1903).
French
Post-Impressionist
painter, sculptor, and printmaker, born in Paris of a journalist from Orleans and a Peruvian Creole mother. He spent his childhood in Lima, joined the merchant marine in 1865, and from 1872 worked successfully as a stockbroker. In the early 1870s he became a spare-time artist and in 1874 he met
Pissarro
and saw the First
Impressionist
Exhibition. At about the same time he began to make a collection of Impressionist pictures. He had a landscape accepted by the
Salon
in 1876 and his work was shown in the Fifth to Eighth (and last) Impressionist Exhibitions. In 1883 he gave up his employment to become a full-time artist, but had little success and sold his collection to support himself and his family. After the last Impressionist Exhibition in 1886 he moved to Brittany, abandoning his family, and until 1890 he spent much of his time at
Pont-Aven
, where he became the pivot of a group of artists who were attracted by his picturesque personality and new ideas in aesthetics. The most important work he produced there was
The Vision After the Sermon
, also known as
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
(NG, Edinburgh, 1888), in which he broke away completely from the Impressionist style, using areas of pure, flat colour for expressive and symbolic purposes. In 1887–8 he went to Panama and Martinique, and in 1888 he spent a short time at Arles with van
Gogh
, a visit which ended in a disastrous quarrel as van Gogh suffered one of his first attacks of madness.
Gauguin had had a taste for colourful, exotic places since his childhood in Peru and in 1891 he left France for Tahiti. In the book
Noa Noa
, which he wrote about his life there, he said: ‘I have escaped everything that is artificial and conventional. Here I enter into Truth, become one with nature. After the disease of civilization life in this new world is a return to health,’ His theory and practice of art reflected these attitudes. He was one of the first to find visual inspiration in the arts of ancient or primitive peoples, and reacted vigorously against the naturalism of the Impressionists and the scientific preoccupations of the
Neo-Impressionists
. As well as using colour unnaturalistically for its decorative or emotional effect he reintroduced emphatic outlines forming rhythmic patterns suggestive of Japanese colour prints (see
UKIYO-E
) or the technique of stained glass. Gauguin also did woodcuts in which the black and white areas formed rhythmical, almost abstract, patterns and the tool marks were incorporated as integral parts of the design. Along with those of Edvard
Munch
, these prints played an important part in the 20th-cent. revival of the art of woodcut—one of the salient features of modern graphic art. His other work included carving and pottery. In Tahiti Gauguin endeavoured to ‘go native’ and despite the constant pressure of poverty he painted his finest pictures there. His colours became more resonant, his drawing more grandly simplified, and his expression of the mysteries of life more profound. In 1893, however, poverty and ill-health forced him to return to France, but he had a financial windfall when an uncle died and he was back in Tahiti in 1895. At the end of 1897 he painted his largest and most famous picture, the allegory of life
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going To?
(Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston), before attempting suicide (although he had deserted his family he had been devastated that year by the news of the death of his favourite daughter). In September 1901 he settled at Dominica in the Marquesas Islands, where he died two years later. Until his death he worked continuously in the face of poverty, illness (he had syphilis), and lack of recognition. During his time in the South Seas he was often unable to obtain proper materials and was forced to spread his colours thinly on coarse sacking, but from these limitations he forged a style of rough vigour wholly appropriate to the boldness of his vision.
At the time of his death few would have agreed with Gauguin's self-assessment: ‘I am a great artist and I know it. It is because I am that I have endured such suffering.’ His reputation was firmly established, however, when 227 of his works were shown at the
Salon d'Automne
in Paris in 1906, and his influence has been enormous. The
Nabis
were formed under his inspiration, he was a leading figure of the
Symbolist
movement and one of the sources for
Fauvism
. Later, he has been one of the major influences on the general non-naturalistic trend of 20th-cent. art. Because of the romantic appeal of his life and personality, particularly his willingness to sacrifice everything for his art, Gauguin has been with van Gogh the most common subject for popular and fictional biography, including the novel
The Moon and Sixpence
(1919) by Somerset Maugham , and the opera (1957) of the same title by John L. Gardner .
French
Post-Impressionist
painter, sculptor, and printmaker, born in Paris of a journalist from Orleans and a Peruvian Creole mother. He spent his childhood in Lima, joined the merchant marine in 1865, and from 1872 worked successfully as a stockbroker. In the early 1870s he became a spare-time artist and in 1874 he met
Pissarro
and saw the First
Impressionist
Exhibition. At about the same time he began to make a collection of Impressionist pictures. He had a landscape accepted by the
Salon
in 1876 and his work was shown in the Fifth to Eighth (and last) Impressionist Exhibitions. In 1883 he gave up his employment to become a full-time artist, but had little success and sold his collection to support himself and his family. After the last Impressionist Exhibition in 1886 he moved to Brittany, abandoning his family, and until 1890 he spent much of his time at
Pont-Aven
, where he became the pivot of a group of artists who were attracted by his picturesque personality and new ideas in aesthetics. The most important work he produced there was
The Vision After the Sermon
, also known as
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
(NG, Edinburgh, 1888), in which he broke away completely from the Impressionist style, using areas of pure, flat colour for expressive and symbolic purposes. In 1887–8 he went to Panama and Martinique, and in 1888 he spent a short time at Arles with van
Gogh
, a visit which ended in a disastrous quarrel as van Gogh suffered one of his first attacks of madness.
Gauguin had had a taste for colourful, exotic places since his childhood in Peru and in 1891 he left France for Tahiti. In the book
Noa Noa
, which he wrote about his life there, he said: ‘I have escaped everything that is artificial and conventional. Here I enter into Truth, become one with nature. After the disease of civilization life in this new world is a return to health,’ His theory and practice of art reflected these attitudes. He was one of the first to find visual inspiration in the arts of ancient or primitive peoples, and reacted vigorously against the naturalism of the Impressionists and the scientific preoccupations of the
Neo-Impressionists
. As well as using colour unnaturalistically for its decorative or emotional effect he reintroduced emphatic outlines forming rhythmic patterns suggestive of Japanese colour prints (see
UKIYO-E
) or the technique of stained glass. Gauguin also did woodcuts in which the black and white areas formed rhythmical, almost abstract, patterns and the tool marks were incorporated as integral parts of the design. Along with those of Edvard
Munch
, these prints played an important part in the 20th-cent. revival of the art of woodcut—one of the salient features of modern graphic art. His other work included carving and pottery. In Tahiti Gauguin endeavoured to ‘go native’ and despite the constant pressure of poverty he painted his finest pictures there. His colours became more resonant, his drawing more grandly simplified, and his expression of the mysteries of life more profound. In 1893, however, poverty and ill-health forced him to return to France, but he had a financial windfall when an uncle died and he was back in Tahiti in 1895. At the end of 1897 he painted his largest and most famous picture, the allegory of life
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going To?
(Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston), before attempting suicide (although he had deserted his family he had been devastated that year by the news of the death of his favourite daughter). In September 1901 he settled at Dominica in the Marquesas Islands, where he died two years later. Until his death he worked continuously in the face of poverty, illness (he had syphilis), and lack of recognition. During his time in the South Seas he was often unable to obtain proper materials and was forced to spread his colours thinly on coarse sacking, but from these limitations he forged a style of rough vigour wholly appropriate to the boldness of his vision.
At the time of his death few would have agreed with Gauguin's self-assessment: ‘I am a great artist and I know it. It is because I am that I have endured such suffering.’ His reputation was firmly established, however, when 227 of his works were shown at the
Salon d'Automne
in Paris in 1906, and his influence has been enormous. The
Nabis
were formed under his inspiration, he was a leading figure of the
Symbolist
movement and one of the sources for
Fauvism
. Later, he has been one of the major influences on the general non-naturalistic trend of 20th-cent. art. Because of the romantic appeal of his life and personality, particularly his willingness to sacrifice everything for his art, Gauguin has been with van Gogh the most common subject for popular and fictional biography, including the novel
The Moon and Sixpence
(1919) by Somerset Maugham , and the opera (1957) of the same title by John L. Gardner .
Gaulli , Giovanni Battista
.
.
Geertgen tot Sint Jans
(
c.
1460–
c.
1490).
Netherlandish painter, born in Leiden but active in Haarlem. Almost nothing is known of his career, but van
Mander
says that he was a pupil of
Ouwater
and died when he was 28. His name means ‘Little Gerard of the Brethren of St John’, after the Order in Haarlem of which he was a lay-brother. For the monastery church of the Brethren he painted his only documented work, a
triptych
of
The Crucifixion
, of which two large panels (originally two sides of a wing) survive (Kunsthistorisches Mus., Vienna): the
Lamentation of Christ
and the
Burning of the Bones of St John the Baptist
. Certain features of these paintings—particularly the slender, doll-like figures with smooth, rather egg-like heads—are highly distinctive, and a small
œuvre
of about fifteen paintings has been attributed to Geertgen on stylistic grounds. Unlike the Vienna panels, most of the other pictures given to him are fairly small. They include such remarkably beautiful works as
The Nativity
(NG, London), a radiant nocturnal scene, and
St John the Baptist in the Wilderness
(Staatliche Museen, Berlin), which shows an exquistite feeling for nature. The vein of tender melancholy that pervades Geertgen's work, the beguilingly innocent charm of his figures, and his sensitivity to light are perhaps the salient qualities that make him one of the most irresistibly attractive artists of the Early Netherlandish School.
c.
1460–
c.
1490).
Netherlandish painter, born in Leiden but active in Haarlem. Almost nothing is known of his career, but van
Mander
says that he was a pupil of
Ouwater
and died when he was 28. His name means ‘Little Gerard of the Brethren of St John’, after the Order in Haarlem of which he was a lay-brother. For the monastery church of the Brethren he painted his only documented work, a
triptych
of
The Crucifixion
, of which two large panels (originally two sides of a wing) survive (Kunsthistorisches Mus., Vienna): the
Lamentation of Christ
and the
Burning of the Bones of St John the Baptist
. Certain features of these paintings—particularly the slender, doll-like figures with smooth, rather egg-like heads—are highly distinctive, and a small
œuvre
of about fifteen paintings has been attributed to Geertgen on stylistic grounds. Unlike the Vienna panels, most of the other pictures given to him are fairly small. They include such remarkably beautiful works as
The Nativity
(NG, London), a radiant nocturnal scene, and
St John the Baptist in the Wilderness
(Staatliche Museen, Berlin), which shows an exquistite feeling for nature. The vein of tender melancholy that pervades Geertgen's work, the beguilingly innocent charm of his figures, and his sensitivity to light are perhaps the salient qualities that make him one of the most irresistibly attractive artists of the Early Netherlandish School.
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