Wild Thing : A Life of Paul Gauguin
Regular price £30.00'Sue Prideaux's reflective and lyrical biography of Paul Gaugin, Wild Thing, offers a stout defence of the great artist.' - Telegraph
A vital re-examination of the trailblazing and controversial artist Paul Gauguin - and the first full biography in over thirty years
Paul Gauguin is chiefly known as the giant of post-Impressionist painting whose bold colours and compositions rocked the Western art world. It is less well known that he was a stockbroker in Paris and that after the 1882 financial crash he struggled to sustain his artistry, and worked as a tarpaulin salesman in Copenhagen, a canal digger in Panama City, and a journalist exposing the injustices of French colonial rule in Tahiti.
In Wild Thing, the award-winning biographer Sue Prideaux re-examines the adventurous and complicated life of the artist. She illuminates the people, places and ideas that shaped his vision: his privileged upbringing in Peru and rebellious youth in France; the galvanising energy of the Paris art scene; meeting Mette, the woman who he would marry; formative encounters with Vincent van Gogh and August Strindberg; and the ceaseless draw of French Polynesia. Prideaux conjures Gauguin's visual exuberance, his creative epiphanies, his fierce words and his flaws with acuity and sensitivity.
Drawing from a wealth of new material and access to the artist's family, this myth-busting work invites us to see Gauguin anew.
A Spectator, Times and TLS 2024 Book of the Year.
Details
- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Date published: September 2024
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780571365937
- Product Dimensions: 24.0 x 16.0 cm
