Book Description
In this magisterial book, Henri Dorra synthesizes more than fifty years of study to present a comprehensive examination of Paul Gauguin's symbolism. Drawing on his profound grasp of the artistic and social contexts in which Gauguin worked, Dorra provides new, complex insights into and interpretations of Gauguin's multilayered symbolism. The Symbolism of Paul Gauguin is lavishly illustrated with a major visual compendium of the artist's prodigious output. The highly readable narrative, based on a sophisticated understanding of Gauguin's oeuvre, offers a masterly interpretation of recurrent images and their interrelationships in the contemporaneous artistic and social context.
Dorra discusses Gauguin's iconography and the artist's treatments of similar themes in various media, from prepatory drawings for paintings to related ceramics and wood carvings. He traces Gauguin's meanings in literary sources from classical mythology and the Bible to late ninetheenth-century literature. He also links the form and content of the artist's work to his unusual ancestry and upbringing. As the final scholarly work by an internationally recognized expert on nineteenth-century French symbolism, this book provides a profound new perspective on Gauguin and his work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

New perspective on Gauguin
This book is the culmination of a lifetime's study of the life and art of Paul Gauguin by a professor who has developed his material over years of teaching and analysis. It offers many new perspectives on the life and thinking of this artist, and is a must read for any person interested in the artist, his associates and the cultural world in which they worked. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Gauguin In His Own Words
Gauguin wasn't Picasso or Munch. Picasso thought his diary would someday make him even more famous as an important writer who also dabbled in the visual arts. Edvard Munch thought that his poetry-prose journals were as good as his paintings--even the title of his journals "We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the Earth" gives his readers a clue to the seriousness of his private journals. Gauguin didn't consider himself a great writer. He didn't feel that the words he was scribbling were all that important. He said "I should like to write as I paint my pictures,--that is to say, following my fancy, following the moon, and finding the title long afterwards." Gauguin was true to that desire.
Also unlike the poetry of Picasso and Munch, a reader doesn't have to carefully parse obscure poetic verses to maybe gain an insight into the mind of the artists. In Picasso's case he loved to write in different languages and in different styles and riddles and often in a stream of consciousness manner. As with his art, he couldn't resist toying with his audience. Gauguin wrote straightforward descriptions of people, places and things that fascinated him. One of the best parts of this book is Gauguin's eyewitness account of Vincent Van Gogh, his housemate's strange behavior. One evening Vincent ran toward him on the street with an open razor in his hand, but stopped suddenly in front of him, bowed and then turned and went home alone. Once there, he cut off his ear, taped up the wound enough to allow him to go out into the streets wearing a Basque Beret pulled down to conceal the missing ear. Van Gogh went straight to a local house of ill repute "and gave the manager his ear, carefully washed and placed in an envelope. `Here is a souvenir of me,' he said. Then he ran off home, where he went to bed and to sleep." The next morning the local police accused Gauguin of murdering his housemate, until Gauguin, who fearing for his own life, had spent the night in a hotel checked the undisturbed body in the blood-soaked bed and discovered his friend to still be alive. The hapless police then called an ambulance, but didn't apologize for their incompetent bungling.
Gauguin hated government bureaucrats and felt they, along with the French clergy were exploiting and destroying the pure culture of the South Seas and anywhere else France controlled.
This is fascinating, easy-to-read, meandering and very natural journal-diary. It provides lots of fresh and politically incorrect views of Gauguin's world in a very pithy style.

The True Iconoclast
It is impossible to read and re-read GAUGUIN'S INTIMATE JOURNALS and not be inspired to jump into the thrills of creativity and rebellion that sparks greatness in artists.Paul Gauguin's life has been well captured in films, in poems, in numerous biographies, in essays - but none of these supply what these extraordinary journals offer: here is the motivation for the fauvist mind and career and art movement Gauguin sprouted.

In these beautifully translated journal entries we learn why Gauguin, a self-taught artist, son of financially secure parents, a businessman able to succeed in the financial world of his era, would leave all of that to first paint in France with the likes of his roommate Vincent Van Goghand ultimately flee to the Pacific Islands where his unusual and avant-garde painting style set all of the art world into motion to change.

Beginning with the preface by his son Emil Gauguin, these journals are accompanied by full page, full color reproductions of some of this finest paintings, works which take on new life wheninformed by the accompanying words of the artist.This is a splendid book well worth adding to the art library of everyone.Grady Harp, October 05

Lots of fragments
This is a 'journal'. It's not a diary, nothing so organized, and he claims repeatedly that "This is not a book." Instead, it's a sequence of slightly connected thoughts, anecdotes, and aphorisms. Give the book time, though, it develops into something much more revealing in its second half.

Gauguin is known for his abrupt departure from respected commercial and family life into the most primitive world available to him. His son prefaces this book by explaining that the parting of ways was necessary and mutual. This book itself presents a few hints at what drove him out of polite and wealthy society - a distaste for the venal gendarmerie, a contempt for the church, and more.

What I found more interesting, though, was his recollections of rooming with Van Gogh and his first-person narrative of the Impressionist revolution in France. He sweetens any bitterness by describing the Tahitian people, as a society, as a system of mores, and as healthy and beautiful human animals.

There's a slight self-conciousness here. Gauguin seemed to be writing for some imagined reader, and in fact sent these journals to be published. I feel that not nearly enough is said; what's written here does little to describe the personal angel or demon that drove him to the farthest point on the planet. Still, I value the master's words.

I admit that I'm not fond of his art. Still, I acknowledge the place that history has given him, and I feel somewhat more of a person for reading what he chose to write.

//wiredweird ... Read more

Book Description
The life of Paul Gauguin is one of the richest and most mythic in the history of Western art. A banker and "Sunday painter," he left behind family and homeland and sailed to the South Seas, seeking a life "in ecstasy, in peace, and for art." Gauguin Tahiti, the first major retrospective of the artist's work in fifteen years, offers an in-depth study of the fabled Polynesian years that have so defined our image of the painter. Alongside essays by leading American and French critics on every aspect of Gauguin's art, from the legendary canvases to his sculptures, ceramics, and innovative graphic works, are discussions of the Polynesian society, culture, and religion that helped shape them; an in-depth biographical narrative of the artist's life, with the many epiphanies, frustrations, and discoveries that make his time in the South Seas one of the most mythologically potent episodes in the history of Western art; and a chronicle of his changing fortunes in the century since his death. At the center of it all is Gauguin's 1897 masterpiece, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, the summation and crowning glory of his mature career, presented with unprecedented depth and authority. Over one hundred years later, Gauguin remains one of the most enigmatic and attractive figures of 19th-century art, the very pivot of modernism, and Gauguin Tahiti finally portrays this crucial period of his life in all its color and drama. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Gauguin fot the insider
This book gives a lot of informaton over the Tahiti-period of Gauguin, not only of his paintings but also of his his sculpture and graphic work. It's state of the art, but a bit dull. Beside, if you want to know more about the exoticism in Gauguin's oeuvre or the symbolism in his work I recommend Gauguin's skirt by Stephen Eisenman or Symbolism by Rodolphe Rapetti. On the other hand, if you are interested in the total output of the artist (and not only his paintings), this book is highly recommemded.

Gauguin:The Artist, Author, Ethnographer, and Promoter
Most art books give you lots of gorgeous plates and a view from 50,000 feet of the artist's entire life.Gauguin Tahiti was a pleasant and positive exception from that generalization.

The book does contain lots of gorgeous plates, but also shows a tremendous number of sketches and source materials backed with extensive notes on what the author wrote and said.This enables a careful reader to appreciate the development of icons, iconography, themes and cosmology.The number of interesting essays in the book is unexpectedly large:17 by my count where the usual art book has perhaps 3 or 4.The essays come at Gauguin from slightly different perspectives, helping you to fill in a 360 degree view over time.

Most art books focus on the artist's best known work.I was very pleased to see this book deal thoroughly with Gauguin's relatively little known sculptures, wood carvings, unusual prints and experimentation with materials and processes.To me, that made this book a particularly rich experience.

If the book has a weakness, it's that the authors of the essays cannot quite bring themselves to describe the less attractive parts of Gauguin's life style and personal habits.So you end up with a partially sanitized package.Like so many artists, his ability to communicate visually was marred by a weak ability to relate to others in constructive and supportive ways.

Be prepared to spend time with this book.Each essay builds on insights from earlier ones with lots of cross referencing of images.As a result, your knowledge will build to a level similar to that of taking an MFA course for a semester on Gauguin's Tahitian and South Sea works.

If you read only one art book this year, you would do well to pick this one.This book will also make a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Gauguin's paintings and wants to learn more about his entire oeuvre.

Take a close look!

He was a man of amazing talent
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) is one of 19th Century Europe's most mythic artists. He was a man of amazing talent, eccentric behavior, and controversial conduct. Leaving a career as a banker, Gauguin became obsessed with painting, eventually abandoning his family and sailing to the South Sea islands of Polynesia where he spent out the remainder of his life painting, sculpturing, producing innovative graphic works and unusual ceramics. Enhanced with 260 color and 80 b/w illustrations, Gauguin Tahiti is wonderfully presented, highly recommended, in-depth, 380-page biography of this gifted man's life and work as a European master artist who "went native" in the tropical paradise of Tahiti. ... Read more

Book Description
Presents a biography of Paul Gauguin ... Read more

Book Description
"May the day come--and perhaps soon--when I can flee to the woods on a South Sea island and live there in ecstasy, in peace and for art," Gauguin wrote to his wife, Mette, in 1890. As both art history and enduring legend have shown, Gauguin's life in the South Seas was anything but ecstatic or peaceful, even as he created some of the most revolutionary and iconic objects of his time. This book, to date the most comprehensive volume of the painter's letters to be published, offers an uncensored glimpse into Gauguin's life, from his days as a young newlywed reporting on the birth of his first child, through his early developments as an artist and finally throughout the extraordinary adventure of his years in Tahiti and the Marquesas. Gauguin's writings, from Noa Noa to his Intimate Journals, have proven him a talented, uninhibited literary stylist. Nowhere is this more evident than in these letters to many of his closest associates and, above all, to Mette, for whom he detailed his plans, described artworks in progress, and gave running accounts of his life and states of mind on distant shores. Published to coincide with the centennial of Gauguin's death and with a major international exhibition, Letters to His Wife and Friends restores to print, after many years, one of the most compelling, intimate and revealing epistolary autobiographies ever assembled. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1894, Paul Gauguin left what he considered to be a culturally bereft Europe to live an unfettered life in a tropical paradise Tahiti. It was there that he produced some of his most beautiful and best-known paintings, as well as another masterpiece: this enchanting journal. Complete with sensuous woodblock prints and sketches, this exquisitely designed edition first published by Chronicle in 1994 and now reissued with a beautiful new jacket is still the only translation to contain all of Gauguin's richly colored illustrations of the Tahiti diary. Including Tahitian myths and legends, affectionate tales of Gauguin's encounters with the captivating Tahitian people, and fascinating glimpses of the inspiration behind his most famous paintings, Noa Noa assumes its rightful place among the masterworks of an extraordinary artist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Gauguin's record of one of his stays in the South Sea Paradise.
This is a jewel of an art book by one of the greatest painters of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Originally considered too racy to publish in France, this 2005 English edition of the banned 1894 illustrated personal journal is probably how Paul Gauguin would have liked to have seen his text and art work combined for publication. The color and layout do justice to his artistic creations.The only change the artist might have still wished for was to have the book's format slightly larger since some of his woodcuts and the original journal itself are slightly larger than this reproduction of the work.
The book has a short 1962 introduction by W. Somerset Maugham that is somewhat amusing in that it tells how Maugham traveled to Tahiti to research Gauguin for a book he was considering writing about the island's most famous painter. He foundone of the actual huts where Gauguin had lived and worked and purchased one of the glass panels that Gauguin had painted for one of the hut's three doors. The children living in the hut had passed the time scratching the windows clean and already destroyed the other two door paintings. Maugham bought the half door containing the one surviving glass panel with its painting of"Eve, nude, with the apple in her hand" still intact for four hundred francs and had it shipped back to his home in New York. It was in his writing room at the time he wrote the introduction for this volume.
Relating the antidote of Maugham's good luck and prowess at art collecting was the only subject covered in the introduction. But it did illustrate how little remained in Tahiti of Gauguin's stay in the Island Paradise. There was even less left there after the famous writer's research visit.
Gauguin's text is much more interesting. He tries to capture some of the purity of the native culture that was being quickly destroyed by the European invasion. I particularly liked the stories of one of his treks into the land of the Gods near the center of the island as well as his story of taking a local wife (concubine) from among the natives. After the deal was made with the 13-year-old girl's parents and stepparents, she accompanied her new mate home. After eight days the woman was required to return to her home and if she had decided she didn't like the match, she never returned to him. That's how divorce was handled in Gauguin's Paradise.
Gauguin attempted to explain the secret and mysterious history, legends and religious beliefs of the natives. His paintings and wood block prints helped him with this documentation. Why he suddenly left his idyllic life in paradise after only a two year stay to return to France in 1896 isn't explained in his journal. He only describes the pain it caused him and his beautiful native mate who he never saw again.
This is a must read for any fan of Paul Gauguin's artwork. Unfortunately, it only answers a few of the many unanswered questions about the great painter's life. And new questions are brought up and then abandoned. Personally, I would love to have read more about the former cannibals he met while living in his South Seas Paradise. Too often Gauguin only touched on some really fascinating fact and then left the reader dangling and desperate to know more. It's still a beautifully illustrated must read!

Paul Gauguin history
This was very interesting reading just before going to the South Seas.Wonderful to see the islands as he saw them and described them in this journal.Well worth reading! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent translation.
Very readable translation.This is not the best edition if you want good reproductions of drawings. But in terms of getting a good text for a good price it's great.

I'm not really going to review the book itself as I assume most people who are here know that this was Gauguin's attempt to put together a what he hoped would be a best selling travelogue that would promote his art.He was hoping to cash in on the success of Pierre Loti's best seller the Marriage of Loti which was set in exotic Tahiti. It never made any money, but this is mostly because of it's idiosyncratic style.But for anyone interested in Gauguin's Tahitian experience it's great.Also check out his intimate journals which came out posthumously and cover also his life before Tahiti.

It's actually an experimental novel
Typically considered a journal or memoir, Gauguin's book is in fact an early type of experimental multimedia novel.Thematically, Gauguin burlesques Pierre Loti's "Marriage of Loti", while structurally he interleaves narrative with his own highly-inventive Post-impressionist woodcarvings.It's a fine book: Gauguin could have been a great novelist, if he weren't already busy.

A Unique Opportunity
Though you may quarrel with Guaguin tactics or motivations, his art stands alone--brilliant, moving, subtle.It is always intriquing to hear the voice of a master painter and "Noa, Noa," affords that opportunity.

Noa Noa
Contemplations visual, intellectual and spiritual.In 1891, French painter Paul Gauguin fled to the island of Tahiti - "a sixty-three days' voyage, sixty-three days of feverish expactancy;"begun as an unofficial visit regarding the imminent death of the island's king Pomare -- and resulting in a profoundly moving sea-change (spirit, observation, happiness).The Tahitian theology, natural history, and especially the progress of his relationships - a gift. This is a good book to read BEFORE embarking on your "desert island" voyage, but beware!Hard to top once you're there on some other island.An exceptional journal, with a graceful translation (it seems) by O. F. Theis from the French.Rated 9 (needs more color plates of paintings! but a lovely, portable paper edition) Other recommended travel/discovery books: Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia, by Mark Jenkins.1993 HarperPerennial pb. Letters from Iceland, by W. H. Auden & Louis MacNeice.1990 Paragon House pb. Why Come To Slaka? by Malcolm Bradbury.1991 Penguin Books pb. Travels With Lizbeth (writing/homelessness), by Lars Eighner. The Starship & the Canoe (Freeman Dyson & son George) Bird of Jove (falconry), by David Bruce.1994 Texas A&M pb. The Earthsea Trilogy, by Ursula K. Le Guin Ishi (anthropology/Native American history), by Theodora Kroeber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Vivid and disturbing
This is a disturbing story.My previous knowledge of Paul Gauguin basically came from a subway ad for the New York School of Visual Arts, which stated that at age 35 he was working as a bank teller.Being a late-bloomer myself, I wanted to know more.Although this is a long book (565 pages of text plus notes and index), it never got tiring for me.I remained fascinated all the way through.Gauguin created some wonderful works, but I really would not want to have known him.He comes across as very childish and irresponsible (which is perhaps a characteristic that all artists share to some degree).His journeys to Brittany and the South Seas are rendered in detail as Sweetman unflinchingly documents Gauguin's descent into drug addiction, madness and destitution.Sweetman also deftly analyzes Gauguin's work and the impact of those influences, creating a vivid portrait of the artist and his world.Parts of the book are horrifying, especially the descriptions of Gauguin's syphillis-ravaged body.Gauguin was a strange man and his story is an unsettling one.I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.The book has many black-and-white photographs of Gauguin and his milieu as well as color reproductions of several of the works discussed.This book will guarantee a deeper appreciation of Gauguin's work.

Difficult Reading...
I am a voracious reader with some knowledge of art history, but after attempting to read this book for the last six months, I am finally stopping at the half-way mark.It is certainly full of new facts and demonstrates an exhaustive amount of research, but I find Sweetman's narrative plodding and unorganized.Also, the book pre-supposes the reader's depth of knowledge on the subject -- the lack of which is quite obviously my problem in enjoying the book.

The First & Only Bio of Gauguin
Brilliant biographer David Sweetman has created a masterpiece with his biography of Gauguin.I don't know how he did it; but I was in awe throughout the reading of this well-thought-out and researched book.Gauguin was a complicated man; and through his exhaustive research, Sweetman gives us the rare opportunity to journey with one of the most colourful and oft-misunderstood artists in history.There are so many new facts uncovered in this book... I could feel the spirit of Gauguin rise up and rebel...http://www.mystic-art.com

Go Get "Gauguin"!
I am disappointed to see that this book is out of print but if you have any interest in Gauguin whatsoever, you should try to get your hands on a copy. This is such an excellent book! Mr. Sweetman has clearly done hishomework and he writes beautifully. By the time you finish this book youwill feel as though you knew Gauguin for, as much as such a thing ispossible, Mr. Sweetman gets you inside the artist's head so that you knowwhat he was thinking and what he was feeling at all the important points ofhis life. The author gives a very balanced view of Gauguin and of theimportant people in his life, including his wife Mette. Gauguin is notportrayed as a saint. Mr. Sweetman does not let him off the hook for theshabby way he sometimes treated his friends and family. In other words,this behavior is not excused just because Gauguin was a brilliant artist.On the other hand, Gauguin is not demonized for his irresponsible behavioreither, as he sometimes could be a caring person and a good friend. Gauguinleft notebooks and correspondence, so when Mr. Sweetman gives you hisinterpretations of the meanings of some of Gauguin's greatest paintings heis not whistling in the dark. Gauguin himself is oftimes present to tellyou what he was trying to do. One of the nice things about the book is thatit does not focus exclusively onGauguin. You learn what what was going onin the Paris art world. There is interesting information given about otherartists, such as Camille Pissarro and Emile Bernard and you also learnabout some of the art dealers, such as Durand-Ruel and Vollard. You aregiven in depth information of what was going on in the French communitieson Tahiti and in the Marquesas. Mr. Sweetman also provides a sympatheticand reasonable explanation for Gauguin's behavior following the death ofVincent Van Gogh. As Mr. Sweetman says in the book, the picture most peoplehave of Gauguin is based almost completely on the portrayal by AnthonyQuinn in the 1950's movie "Lust For Life". If you read thiswonderful book you will get a much more well-rounded picture of what thisvery complicated man was truly like.

Sweetman's done it again!
New and up-to-date information that will surprise lovers of Gauguin's art.You'll really understand who he was after reading this wonderfully thorough masterfully written piece of research.It made me feel like I wastraveling with Gauguin, suffering his pain and in the end feeling thetriumphs of his achievements.Very colorful. ... Read more

Book Description
This unique book is the first to give equal weight to Gauguin's activities, both as an artist and a writer, providing rare insight into his intractable character and uncompromising ideals. Includes over 230 reproductions of the artist's most powerful and decorative works of art, as well asrare letters to his wife and friends, including fellow painters Pisarro and Van Gogh. ... Read more

Book Description
Paul Gauguin Images from the South Seas

By Eckhard Hollmann

Paul Gauguin (1848 -1903) continues exert an extraordinary fascination through both his life and his works. This exciting study focuses on the years from the artist 's first journey to Tahiti in 1891 to his death in the South Pacific in 1903. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Couldn`t put it down
This survey of Gauguin's later work and career provided an excellent complement to Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence". The book provides the historical background to separate the facts from the rumors that circulated after his death. The excellent reproductions (all in color) are well chosen to complement the text and sequenced so that they are on or near the pages on which they are discussed. The book is an easy read and an excellent bargain for a hardbound book so well illustrated. ... Read more

Book Description
Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin provides a new interpretation of Gauguin's art.Reconstructing the artist's changing painting techniques, Jirat-Wasiutynski and Newton demonstrate that Gauguin's technical choices were meaningful. Beginning in 1886, Gauguin produced monumental figure paintings using full-scale cartoons to prepare them in a manner similar to that of the Quattrocento fresco painters. In the following years, brushwork and impasto disappeared from his paintings, producing works that contemporaries described as "primitive" and "decorative." Indeed, the authors argue, Gauguin's abandonment of oil painting was deliberate and signaled a rejection of modern Western culture and society. ... Read more

Book Description
This large, lavish journey through the art of the 19th-century French landscape offers a host of masterful works, among them Corot's Forest of Fontainbleau, Millet's End of the Hamlet of Gruchy, Renoir's Rocky Crags at L'Estaque, and Monet's Rue de la Bavolle, Honfleur. As is often the case, however, some of the most wonderful things to see are also the least expected: rare and unusual monotypes by Degas, three states of a softground etching by Pissarro, and numerous works by some of their lesser-known but equally important contemporaries. Unlike previous books on the topic, Impressions of Light presents a unique and stunningly complete group of work that introduces a new level of complexity into the discussion of French landscapes. Rather than considering the landscape as a steady, linear development and the product of a single medium, it takes into account the many crosscurrents and intersecting developments in French art, from the Barbizon school through the post-Impressionist period. In addition, it studies the landscape in a variety of media--painting, prints, and photography--exploring both the individual artists' perceptions and the ways in which they influenced each other. With over 80 paintings and 70 works on paper from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's collections, and published to accompany a major exhibition, Impressions of Light encompasses more than 100 years and 56 artists working in a dozen different media. It holds the broadest possible view, yet never loses sight of the extraordinary intricacy that makes the landscape so enduringly appealing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Come Visit Beautiful French Landscapes
The book Impressions of Light by George Shackleford et al is a companion book to an art exhibit of works from Boston's Museum of Fine Art. The paintings are landscapes created by France's greatest nineteenth century painters and photographers. Most of the painters are Impressionists but others schools are represented as well. The book also contains sketches which were part of the exhibit. The sketches, as well as the written commentary which accompanies many of them, allows the reader to better understand the creative process of the painters. The factual information in the book is very extensive and helps the readers see more in the works than normally meets the eye. Perhaps what is most interesting about this book and the collection of paintings and photographs included it is the plethora of lesser known works by these great artists. Readers, especially those who have been fortunate to view the exhibit, will be transported to the settings of these great works and gain a deeper appreciation of these great artists and photographers.

A spectaculrly beautifully, illustrated art history
Impressions Of Light: The French Landscape From Corot To Monet is a lavishly, richly, spectaculrly beautifully, illustrated art history showcasing one hundred years of French art and 56 French artists. Included area wealth of rare and unusual monotypes by Degas, three states of a softground etching by Pissarro, and numerous illustrative works by lesser-known by equally significant contemporaries. Of particular interest is the attention paid to intersecting developments in French art from the Barbizon school through post-Impressionism. Enhanced with more than 80 paintings and 70 works on paper drawn from the MFA collections, showcasing the French landscape through painting, prints, and photography, Impressions Of Light deftly explores individual artists' perceptions as well as the manifold ways that influenced each other. Impressions Of Light will prove to be a welcome and much appreciated contribution to Art History collections in general, and 19th Century French landscape art and photography in particular. ... Read more

Product Description
A Beautiful collection of plates and text depicting Gauguin's work from 1848-1903. Book measures 9'' wide by 11 3/4 tall. Written by Benedikt Taschen Verla who has written a series of books on artist. All color plates ... Read more

Book Description
In this penetrating and daring biography of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903),Nancy Mowll Mathews traces the themes of sex and violence through the artist's life,from the near-murderous quarrels of his grandparents, to his abusive treatment of hiswife, to his sexual encounters in French Polynesia in the 1890s. The book examines howGauguin used these complex themes in his art and writings and how he carefullypresented his "erotic life" in the autobiographical treatises "Noa Noa" (1893) and "Avantet Après" (1903). The central drama of Gauguin's adulthood--his marriage to Mette GadGauguin--is assessed in detail, and with the inclusion of some of Mette's previouslyunpublished letters, both sides of the Gauguin marriage are presented for the first time. Mathews also provides fascinating new insights into understanding Gauguin'srelationships with men and women and the roles that sexuality and aggression played inshaping his art. She also illuminates his homosocial, if not homoerotic, relationships withVincent van Gogh, Emile Schuffenecker, and Charles Filiger. Gauguin's genius residednot only in his forging of new artistic paths, Mathews concludes, but in his ability tobring his sexual fantasies alive for a large audience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fresh approach
This book, in its calm, even-handed way, manages to make Paul Gauguin come to life for the first time.Rather than rehash the myths about this man (which, Mathews demonstrates, were started by Gauguin himself), the author goes directly to the primary sources to trace his life and understand his character.It turns out that he did beat his wife and leave her and their five children without financial support.And he treated most of his friends and colleagues with equal heartlessness. But the story does not end there.It goes on to show how even out of such a flawed character great art could arise.This book teaches much about the unpredictability of creative talent.

Prejudiced Author
It is unfortunate when an author approaches his or her subject with such a predetermined perspective that the author's opinions and report of facts becomes suspect.This is clearly the case with Nancy Mathews approach to Paul Gauguin.

She starts with the assumption that he is an abusive and violent man, and selectively views his life to support this distorted view.

Some examples: At p. 66 that author states: "It is not known whether Gauguin beat his children."What an outrageous statement for a purportedly objective biographer to make!It is like the proverbial qustion "When did you stop beating your wife?"

On page 62 as an example of Gauguin's "cruelty" to women is cited the fact that when Gauguin engaged in the Danish custom of men and women bathing nude at the beach he actually looked at a pretty, nude woman.

Also on page 62 the author states that when Gauguin left Denmark and returned to Paris, "Out of spite he took one of the children ..Clovis".The author offers not a sintilla of evidence to back up her statement that this action was spitefully motivated, rather than a natural paternal desire to have one of his sons with him.

Whatever merits the book may otherwise have, this obvious bias of the author makes the entire book suspect. ... Read more

Book Description