Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

1954

Special Collections ND553 G27 R482 1954

New York: Harry N. Abrams

Painter, engraver, and sculptor Eugène Henry Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) left a successful career as a broker in 1883 to pursue art full time. During his frequent visits to galleries and exhibitions in Paris, he became acquainted with the artists Camille Pissarro, Dégas, and van Gogh – he was living and working with the Dutchman when he famously sliced off his left ear. Gauguin is most well-known for his colourful paintings of the bare-breasted women of the Pacific Islands, mostly in Tahiti where he lived from 1890. However, it was only after his death that he became famous as an artist. The original of this painting (above), entitled ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (1899), is housed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.