Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (Paris 1848 - Atuana, The Marquesas 1903), French Post-Impressionist painter. Before he became a professional artist in 1883, he worked as a stockbroker, collector, and amateur artist.
In Paris he began working with Camille Pissarro in 1874. In Paris, Gauguin also met Edgar Degas, Charles Laval, Armand Guillaumin, Emile Bernard and Vincent Van Gogh.
He said when he left for Tahiti (1891): "to immerse myself in virgin nature, see no one but savages, live their life, with no other thoughts in mind but to render the way a child would . . . and to do this with nothing but the primitive means of art, the only means that are good and true." There, Gauguin made among others the idyllic landscapes In the Vanilla Grove, Man and Horse and Haere Mai (Come here! in Tahitian), (Both in 1891).
Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?, 1897.
Scenes from Tahitian Life, 1896.