Product:

Artwork: Winter Landscape 1879

Artist: Paul Gauguin

Museum: Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest

(Google map)

Winter Landscape was shown in Paris at the fifth exhibition of Impressionists in 1880. The buoyancy of the misty gloom and the luminous effect of the falling snowflakes are typical of his style. Research has recorded a particular snowstorm that suddenly struck Paris that year. The scene is divided by a row of young trees with laden branches, while a full grown tree with a straight trunk stands among them, marked by refined articulation.

Artist Details

Eugne Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 8 May 1903) Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France to journalist Clovis Gauguin and half-Peruvian Aline Maria Chazal, the daughter of socialist leader Flora Tristan. In 1851 the family left Paris for Peru, motivated by the political climate of the period. Clovis died on the voyage, leaving three-year old Paul, his mother and his sister to fend for themselves. They lived for four years in Lima, Peru with Paul's uncle and his family. The imagery of Peru would later influence Paul in his art. At the age of seven, Paul and his family returned to France. They moved to Orléans, France to live with his grandfather. He soon learned French and excelled in his studies. At seventeen, Gauguin signed on as a pilot's assistant in the merchant marine to fulfill his required military service. Three years later, he joined the navy where he stayed for two years. In 1871, Gauguin returned to Paris where he secured a job as a stockbroker. In 1873, he married a Danish woman, Mette Sophie Gad. Over the next ten years, they would have five children. Gauguin had been interested in art since his childhood. In his free time, he began painting. He would also visit galleries frequently and purchase work by emerging artists. Gauguin formed a friendship with artist Camille Pissarro, who introduced him to various other artists. As he progressed in his art, Gauguin rented a studio, and showed paintings in Impressionist exhibitions held in 1881 and 1882. Over two summer vacations, he painted with Pissarro and occasionally Paul Cézanne. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?1897, oil on canvasBoston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897, oil on canvas Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA By 1884 Gauguin had moved with his family to Copenhagen, where he pursued a business career as a stockbroker. Driven to paint full-time, he returned to Paris in 1885, leaving his family in Denmark. Without adequate subsistence, his wife (Mette Sophie Gadd) and their five children returned to her family. Gauguin was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. His bold experimentation with coloring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential exponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. Gauguin outlived two of his children.