In the Beginning: Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) famously painted Postimpressionist, often Symbolist scenes of Brittany and French Polynesia using exaggerated color schemes. It took him a while to reach his signature style, and this post provides some examples of his work leading up to that point.

Wikipedia provides an lengthy (for them) entry dealing with Gauguin here. Included is information that he began painting about 1873, but didn't do it full-time until starting around 1882-83.

Below are images of some paintings from his earliest artistic days to when his main style emerged.

Gallery

Clearing - 1873
A dark scene reminding me of Barbizon School art.

Cail Factories at the Quai of Grenelle - 1875
This is sketchier, the colors are brighter yet limited.

The Embroiderer (Mette Gauguin) - 1878
Here we find Impressionist-style brushwork and perhaps coloring (though this is an interior scene, not outdoor countryside).

Geese on the Farm - 1879
Again, quasi-Impressionist.

Pissarro's Garden, Pontoise - 1881
Painted while they were still friends.

Farm in Osney - 1883
Here Gauguin is using somewhat stronger brushwork while maintining interest in color combinations.

Mettte Gauguin in Evening Dress - 1884
This setting is a rarity for Gauguin.

Four Breton Women - 1886
A subject theme while he was in Brittany, though here his style is close-to, but not quite Gauguin.

Martinique Landscape - 1887
Now he has been exposed to tropical colors -- an important factor of his later work.

Then, in 1888, Gauguin painted pictures in a wide variety of styles including the cloisonnist, strongly colored theme he became noted for.

Paintings from 1888

Madeleine Bernard - 1888
A nice portrait of artist Emile Bernard's sister.

Breton Woman and Goose by Water - 1888
An experiment using extremely bold colors.

Cove Opposite Pont-Aven Harbor - 1888
Here he drops back briefly towards Impressionism.

The Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) - 1888
This is perhaps Gauguin's earliest famous painting.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Georges van Zevenberghen, Belgian Inspired by Chardin

Image
As the title of this post mentions, Georges Antoine Van Zevenberghen (1877-1968), was presumably inspired by Chardin's paintings. Well, that's what this nearly-worthless French Wikipedia entry mentions: " Il partit ensuite pour Paris en 1903 où il admira les œuvres du peintre du xviiie siècle Jean Siméon Chardin qui le marquèrent durablement. " It seems that van Zevenberghen spent most of his long life in Belgium, enduring periods of German occupation in both World Wars. His main travels apparently were to Paris. The entry also notes: " En 1933, il devint professeur à l'Académie royale des beaux-arts de Bruxelles, fonction qu'il remplit jusqu'en 1948. " So he was regarded highly enough to become a professor in the Academy. Not many of his paintings can be found on the Internet. They are generally solidly done. There is one that stands out, however, as can be seen below. Gallery La repasseuse - 1907 The earliest of his paintings that I coul
Read more

Tom Purvis' Austin Reed Posters

Image
Tom Purvis (1888-1959) was a leading British poster artist during the 1920s and 1930s, especially after his style evolved into simplified shapes with areas of flat color and no outlining. Purvis' Wikipedia entry is here , but as of the time this post was drafted (late December 2017), it was not very informative. More biographical information can be found here , but you will need to scroll down to find it. Although he worked for a number of clients, he is best known for his railroad posters and those for Austin Reed, a clothier. Both Austin Reed and Purvis were at their peak when the posters shown below were created. Purvis moved on to portrait work and religious painting in the years following World War 2. Austin Reed went bankrupt in 2016 and its remains were acquired by Edinburgh Woolen Mill. As I write this, there are no Austin Reed stores in London. Gallery For most of its existence, Austin Reed's flagship store was located at the lower end of Regent Street, not far fr
Read more

Hugh Goldwin Rivière, Mid-Lever British Portraitist

Image
Hugh Goldwin Riviere (1869–1956) lived a long life and made a living as a portrait painter in the United Kingdom. The most detail I could find about him during a short Google search is here -- almost nothing there, as you can see. Nevertheless, he painted many portraits, a number of which can be seen here . Note that nearly all are of persons of local or middling national interest. There are no royalty, top-level nobility or senior military leaders shown. Nor are there subjects from the entertainment world. That said, Rivière (of Huguenot descent) was competent in his work and also painted subjects besides portraits on occasion. Despite his competence, as readers of this blog might be aware by now, he had a great number of British competitors who were equally good, and a few who were much better. In the Gallery below, a few portraits are presented, then three other works. The latter pre-date the portraits, so I'll conjecture that he tried other subjects before settling on po
Read more