NAVE NAVE FENUA

(Fragrant Isle)

Cult Art

Fine Art Giclée Print

Co-created and published by PINEAPPLE GALLERY

Print Dimensions: 29cm x 49cm

Original Paul Gauguin 1893-94

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French post-Impressionist artist.

Unappreciated until after his death, Paul Gauguin’s art became popular after he died, partially from the efforts of art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who organised exhibitions of his work late in his career and assisted in organizing two important posthumous exhibitions in Paris.

Paul was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer his creative talent spread wide across different disciplines.

His expression paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

In 1873, around the same time as he became a stockbroker, Gauguin began painting in his free time. His Parisian life centred on the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Gauguin lived at 15, rue la Bruyère. Nearby were the cafés frequented by the Impressionists.

He visited galleries frequently and purchased work by emerging artists. He formed a friendship with Camille Pissarro and visited him on Sundays to paint in his garden. Pissarro introduced him to various other artists and in 1877 he “moved downmarket and across the river to the poorer, newer, urban sprawls” of Vaugirard. Here, on the third floor at 8.

Gauguin paid little attention to classical perspective and boldly eliminated subtle gradations of colour,his painting later evolved towards Synthetism in which neither form nor colour predominate but each has an equal role.

Later on in 1887 he arrived in Martinique where he had found himself broke and without a job. At the time France had a policy of repatriation where if a citizen became broke or stranded on a French colony, the state would pay for the boat ride back.

Paul was excited about his experience there and finished 11 known paintings during his stay, many of which seem to be derived from his island hut.

The artworks are colourful loosely painted, outdoor figural scenes. He recycled some of his figures and sketches in later paintings. Rural and indigenous populations remaining a popular subject in his work after he left the island and are widely loved and recognised today.