On the 8th of May 1903, the iconic French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin died in Atuona, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. In 1891, Gauguin sailed to French Polynesia allegedly to escape European civilization and “everything that is artificial and conventional”. As a record of his travels, he ended up writing a book titled Noa Noa describing his experiences in Tahiti. In past decades, more and more allegations by modern critics point to the fact that the contents of the book were fantasized. (Cotter, Holland. “The Self-Invented Artist”. The New York Times. Retrieved 9 December 2010.)
It turns out that Gauguin’s move to the islands was a bit of a last resort in the artist’s life. It came as the result of very bad fortune in his working and personal life. By 1890, his long-suffering wife Matte had thrown him out and several dealers dropped him. He owed many people money and…
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