Paul René Gauguin (27 February 1911 – 14 February 1976) was a French painter, graphical artist, sculptor, book illustrator and scenographer. He was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, and was a son of

Pola Gauguin Pola Gauguin (6 December 1883 – 2 July 1961) was a Danish-Norwegian painter, art critic and biographer. Biography Paul Rollon Gauguin was born in Paris, France. He was the youngest of five children born to the famed French artist Paul Gauguin ...

, and grandson of

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

. He is particularly known for his coloured woodcuts. Among his book illustrations are books by

Inger Hagerup Inger Hagerup (née Halsør; 12 April 1905, in Bergen (city), Bergen – 6 February 1985, in Fredrikstad (town), Fredrikstad) was a Norwegian people, Norwegian writer, playwright and poet. She is considered one of the greatest Norwegian poets of ...

, and he made stage design for various theatres.

Career

Born on 27 January 1911 in

, Paul was an innovator in a typical form of Norwegian art that later got its name as the school of Norwegian color woodcuts. In 1924, he migrated to

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

, later to

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, where in 1930, he appeared for the entrance exam for the Norwegian Lycée Pierre Corneille. Paul first learned his wood-cuts from 1930 to 1935, while on fishing trips to

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

and

Ibiza Ibiza (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...

. He made his debut in wood-cut art at the Autumn Exhibition 1936. In 1938, he worked as a journalist for ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' while in Spain and completed his "Barcelona" while still working there. In the post

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

period in 1949, his work, ''The Mask'', made a mark as a protest against

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. Following more exhibitions, he did the illustration for

's ''Strange'' in 1950. After his death in 1976, his first solo exhibition was hosted by his third wife, Martha Poulsen, in 1981, when 107 objets d'art were displayed at the National Museum. In his career span, from 1939 to 1945, he created theatrical motifs and decorations for Young

Trøndelag Theater Trøndelag (; or is a Counties of Norway, county and coextensive with the Trøndelag Regions of Norway, region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Tron ...

and in 1951, for National Theater. Apart from dramatizing the National theater, his decoration works along with his co-artist, Knut Rumohr, include: the Olympic Building, Hotel Viking, and the coastal steamer, MS ''Nordstjernen'' In 1955 in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Gauguin worked with enamel, iron sculptures and scrap iron. His works were inspired by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

and

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

. Grandson of the renowned French Impressionist,

, he had a good command of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and Catalan.

References

1911 births 1976 deaths Artists from Copenhagen 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian male painters Norwegian expatriates in France 20th-century Norwegian sculptors Paul Gauguin 20th-century male artists Burials at the Garrison Cemetery, Copenhagen {{Norway-artist-stub