Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was born in Paris on the 7th of June, 1848, the son of Clovis Gauguin, a Republican editor, and his wife Aline Marie Chazal. In 1849, after Louis Napoléon came to power in France, the family immigrated to Peru. Gauguin’s father died on the ship before they arrived. When they arrived in Peru, Paul, his elder sister Mari and their mother stayed in Lima with relatives and did not return to France until 1855 where they stayed with an uncle in Orléans. In 1865, Paul became a sailor and spent the next three years sailing between France and South America, and occasionally other parts of the world. In 1868, he joined the French navy, which he left after the Franco-Prussian War ended to work as a broker’s agent in Paris. He began taking an interest in art and drawing in 1871 when he met and befriended a clerk at the broker’s agency. Claude-Emile was a shy clerk three years younger than Gauguin who shared his interest in painting and soon they were both studying painting and visiting the Louvre.

In 1873, Gauguin met and married Mette Sophie Gad (1850-1920), who gave birth to his 5 children: Emile, Aline, Clovis, Jean René and Pola.

Within a year he had met Pissaro and the other Impressionist painters and was painting regularly though still bringing home a comfortable income from which he bought many of the Impressionists’ paintings.

His début for his own work in the Paris Salon took place in 1876 and he also exhibited paintings and sculptures with the Impressionists and the Indépendents in 1879, 1880 and 1882. The works Gauguin created during this period were heavily influenced by the Impressionist movement, especially by the works of his friend Pissaro, who gave his advice to Gauguin generously. Cezanne also had a large influence on him as well, but gradually Gauguin broke away from Impressionism and adopted a bolder style; simplifying his drawing, using brilliant pure bright colors and deliberately flattening the planes, a style which he called ‘synthetic symbolism’.

In 1883, Gauguin quit the stock exchange to dedicate himself to his art fulltime. His financial troubles weren't far behind him and soon he found he could no longer provide for his family. In 1885, he left his family in Copenhagen with his parents-in-law, and returned to Paris to paint and once again be surrounded by like minded artists. From 1886 and 1888, he worked in Brittany and executed some of his most expressive works, such as “The Yellow Christ (1889).

In October-December 1888, following the persistent suggestions of his art-dealer, Theo van Gogh, Gauguin visited with his brother, Vincent in Arles. His stay with the sick and tortured van Gogh was tumultuous at best. Though they painted together daily and found solace in one another, Gauguin found himself disliking and even despising his roommate at times. With little food at times and no money things came to a head when Vincent lashed out at Gauguin and then cut off his own ear. Gauguin simply packed and left while Vincent recuperated and they never saw one another again.

Gauguin continued struggling and painting then managed in 1891, to organize a trip to Tahiti at the expense of the French government. There he continued to paint uninterrupted in the warm climate but soon fell seriously ill, still however managing to paint and send pieces back to Paris where he did not return until 1893.

In 1895 Gauguin left for Tahiti a second time. Although glad to be back in the tropics and painting again he was plagued by illness. His health deteriorated through the effects of alcohol, syphilis, depression and financial worries which led in 1898 to an attempted suicide. Throughout it all Gauguin still continued painting numerous masterpieces.

In 1900, after signing a contract with the Parisian art dealer Vollard, his financial position improved, but his health was irreparably ruined. In 1901 he moved from Tahiti to Atuana on the Island of Dominique in the Marquesas, where his paintings flourished and his colors grew even more abundant and lush.

In 1903, just as it looked like things were improving Gauguin was sentenced to three-months in prison and fined 1,000 francs because of problems with the church and the colonial administration. Before he could begin his sentence however, he died alone, surrounded by his work at his home in Atuana.