A great many willful painters can be assigned to Post-Impressionism who forged their own artistic paths. Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), like Vincent van Gogh, is a particularly uncompromising exponent of this current. His quest for an independent artistic stance and an authentic lifestyle took the former stockbroker from Paris to Brittany before deciding to travel to Polynesia. Simplified forms, expressive colors, and marked two-dimensionality characterize his seminal paintings, which are currently among the most coveted in the world.

The representative publication traces Gauguin’s artistic development based on great masterpieces from the areas of painting and sculpture—from the multifaceted self-portraits and sacred paintings from Gauguin’s period in Brittany, and the idyllic, wistful paintings and archaic, mystical sculptures from Tahiti, to the late works from his last station on the Marquesas Islands. The volume examines Gauguin’s multilayered body of work as well as his influence on modern and contemporary artists.