Art History Analysis Gaugin

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An Analysis of Gauguin’s Painting…

“WHERE DO WE COME FROM WHAT ARE WE WHERE ARE WE GOING”

Painting: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Date: 1897-1898

Painter: Paul Gauguin

Dimensions: Approximately 5’ wide by over 12’ long

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Painted in: Tahiti

On Display: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Ma

[Wikipedia, the notes from class as well as The MFA of Boston where used as sources for this paper]

Sabrina Marie Marchand

Art of the Modern World

November 16th 2010

WHERE DO WE COME FROM WHAT ARE WE WHERE ARE WE GOING

Paul Gauguin was a well known post-impressionist painter who lived from 1848-1903. Gauguin is best known for the unique style he used while creating his paintings but also dabbled in a variety of different artistic outputs such as sculpting, wood carving and even writing.

Gauguin left his family and his secure career as a stockbroker to become a painter. Throughout his life he experienced vibrant waves of depression and even contemplated killing himself. He (like many other artists of his time) was not only friends with other artists but he would study their work to better his own. He was good friends with Van Gogh and he painted with other great artists such as Cezanne and Pissarro. His art was also extremely influenced by Gauguin’s trip to Tahiti.

Gauguin was very interested in painting the church and the cycle of life whilst using pure colors with thick black outlines. A perfect example of this is his painting is called “The Yellow Christ” This painting was designed as to be something new. It isn’t just about the form nor the color instead each are of equal importance.

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(Yellow Christ by Gauguin taken from Wikipedia.org)

Gauguin painted his painting; “Where Do We Come From What Are We Where Are We Going” as a

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