Death of Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin died on 8 May 1903 in Atuona, aged 54. A French painter and printmaker, Gauguin spent part of his childhood in Peru and later worked as a stockbroker in Paris, painting in his spare time and exhibiting with the Impressionists. He abandoned his career and family to paint, working in Brittany, where he and Émile Bernard developed a style with flat areas of bold colour and strong outlines known as Synthetism. In 1888 he lived briefly with Vincent van Gogh in Arles, a stay that ended in a painful quarrel. In 1891 he left for Tahiti in search of an unspoiled world, and later settled in the Marquesas Islands, where he died. His work influenced the Symbolists and Fauves, though modern critics also question his colonial attitudes and relationships with young girls.

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