"The Large Tree", Paul Gauguin NFT on XRPL

"The Large Tree", Paul Gauguin

Collection: Cleveland Originals

Disgusted with the materialism of European society, Gauguin abandoned his family and career as a stockbroker and departed for Tahiti in 1891. This canvas is among the first paintings he completed on the island. Its rich colors and stylized figures were intended to be both symbolic and mysterious, evoking private thoughts and emotions. “I obtain symphonies,” he wrote, “harmonies that represent nothing real in the absolute sense of the word. "fun_fact": "Gauguin positions four women in a friezelike sequence seeking shelter under the dark green leaves of a large tree while the leaves of the second tree add a decorative pattern to the pink thatched roof. With his brush, he captures contrasting elements of the tropical climate, sending the viewer into the cool shade to escape the hot sun." Artist Bio: Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter whose vibrant paintings, characterized by bold and flat colors and the use of mystical and ambiguous symbols, revolutionized art. Gauguin, who did not achieve success during his lifetime, moved to Polynesia in search of a place untouched by modernity where he could express himself independently of all artistic conventions. Youth Paul Gauguin was born in Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Paris, on June 7, 1848. His father, Clovis Gauguin, was a journalist, and his mother, Aline Marie Chazal, had noble Spanish blood. Clovis, a republican, was forced to leave France when Emperor Napoleon III took over the government in 1849. The family moved to Lima, Peru, but Clovis died of a heart attack during the journey. Paul spent the next six years of his childhood in Peru. In 1855, Aline and her children returned to France, living for a few years with relatives in Orleans before returning to Paris in 1861. At the age of 17, Paul served in the military on the Luzitano, a merchant marine ship that sailed between Le Havre and Rio de Janeiro. In 1867, he transferred to the Chile, which sailed to Polynesia. The following year, he served on a warship, and in 1870, he participated in the Franco-Prussian War. GAUGUIN SPENT WEEKENDS PAINTING, BUT AT SOME POINT, HE REALIZED HE WAS WASTING WEEKDAYS. After leaving the navy and returning to France, Gauguin built a successful financial career in Paris. In November 1873, he married Mette-Sophie Gad (1850-1920), a Danish woman in Paris to further her education, and the couple led a very conventional life. Their first child, Émile, was born in September 1874, and the second, Aline, in December 1877. Since 1873, Gauguin spent weekends painting, but at some point, he realized he was wasting weekdays. Impressionism Gauguin's interest in art and the new Impressionist movement intersected in April 1874 in Paris at the first Impressionist exhibition. Impressionists like Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), and Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) sought to capture the momentary effects of light and color. Gauguin was so impressed that he became one of the few buyers at the exhibition. Gauguin began considering the idea of transitioning from an amateur to a professional painter. In 1876, he enrolled at the Académie Colarossi. That same year, Gauguin's Landscape at Viroflay was accepted by the Salon de Paris, an institution that virtually monopolized fine arts exhibitions. Gauguin was primarily influenced by the Impressionist and landscape master Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and the work of the realist painter Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Although he was part of the Impressionist group that frequently gathered in Parisian cafes, the passionate Gauguin didn't get along with everyone. Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) became a particular enemy, despite Gauguin greatly admiring Cézanne's work. Another close friend was the young nonconformist Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). While the Impressionists aimed to capture light, it wasn't just this that affected Gauguin. They used brighter colors and imaginative brushstrokes, painted outdoors instead of in the studio, and tackled new subjects like everyday street life. Gauguin was invited by his peers to exhibit his work at the fourth Independent Impressionist exhibition in Paris in April 1879. That same year, he spent time in Pontoise painting with Pissarro, a collaboration they repeated in the summer of 1881. Gauguin exhibited paintings and a sculpture in the fifth Impressionist exhibition of 1880 and several new canvases in the sixth Impressionist exhibition of 1881 and the seventh in 1882. After the Paris stock market crash in 1882, Gauguin finally decided to quit his job in the city and become a full-time artist from January 1883. In 1884, he moved to Rouen, hoping to find more sales for his paintings. This turned out to be a mistake, and the entire family, now consisting of five children, moved to Copenhagen to be with Mette's family. There, Gauguin worked as a salesperson for a French maritime canvas company, though without any success. Family relations were tense, but at least Gauguin managed to secure an exhibition at the Society of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, although it didn't generate much interest from the public. Gauguin decided to leave Mette, who was now independent and working as a teacher and translator, and in June 1885, he returned to Paris and then to Dieppe. Financial difficulties force Gauguin to work pasting posters on the street. The artist's poverty during this period is expressed in the following comment in a letter to Pissarro: "Painting... I don't even have money to buy paints, so I limit myself to drawing" (Bouruet Aubertot, 250). He also participated in the eighth Impressionist exhibition in May 1886, contributing 19 works, but many of the former Impressionists had left, and Gauguin was now an outsider. The artist no longer enjoyed the comfortable societal position he had as a stockbroker and art collector. People accused him of abandoning his family. In June, he moved to Pont-Aven in Brittany, where the cost of living was much lower, one of the reasons it was popular among artists. Here, Gauguin developed his distinctive style, adopting brighter colors and using thicker brushstrokes to create bold outlines and vibrant areas of flat color. GAUGUIN EXPERIMENTS WITH COLOR AND PERSPECTIVE, OFTEN USING SYMBOLS TO EVOKE EMOTIONS. As winter approached, he moved to Paris but was forced to spend four weeks in the hospital due to angina. He then took up pottery under the guidance of Ernest Chaplet (1835-1909). In April 1887, Gauguin decided to revisit Panama in search of a new path for his art. As he explained in a letter to Mette, in correspondence that had not been interrupted by their physical separation, "I must regain my energy, and I am going to Panama to live like a savage" (Hodge, 31). Unfortunately, he couldn't secure any portrait commissions from Panama's wealthier inhabitants, and the artist was forced to work for a while as a laborer on the colossal project that would become the Panama Canal. He contracted dysentery. Fed up with the idea, Gauguin left in June for the French colony of Martinique. Primitivism Saint-Pierre in Martinique inspired Gauguin with its light and vibrant colors. Living in a primitive hut on the outskirts of the city, the artist focused on painting people of African descent on the island. However, selling his avant-garde paintings proved as challenging as it did in Panama or Paris. Gauguin employed a wide range of artistic styles reflecting the influence of ancient and Asian art. He experimented with color and perspective, often using symbols to evoke emotions in his compositions and presenting deliberately simplified scenes. This style became known as primitivism or, more specifically, synthetism or cloisonnism, drawing inspiration from medieval enamelwork (cloisonné), Japanese prints, and native art, where strong dark contours were used to encircle areas of simple color, resembling images in a stained glass window. This style was one of those that replaced Impressionism, which is why it is called Post-Impressionism, although this term was not coined until 1910. Gauguin soon ran out of money, even having to sell his watch, and contracted malaria. He was trapped, unable to afford the return passage to France. The only way out was to find a ship that would hire him to cross the Atlantic. He succeeded and returned to Paris in 1887. Then things began to improve. His paintings from Martinique caused enough stir for the art dealer Theo van Gogh (1857-1891) to purchase a few; he also acquired some ceramics from Gauguin. These and other sales allowed the artist to move back to Pont-Aven in February 1888. Brittany wasn't a primitive place, but it had an appeal for artists as an antidote to the excessive sophistication of Paris. Gauguin wrote in a letter, "I love Brittany. There is something wild and primitive about it. When my wooden clogs strike this granite soil, I hear the dull, muted, powerful tone that I seek in my painting" . His new style during this period, combining symbolism, flat perspective, and contours around solid fields of vibrant colors, is best appreciated in "Vision After the Sermon," which depicts Breton women in traditional headdresses turning toward an angel wrestling with the biblical figure of Jacob. It was in Brittany that Gauguin initiated a relationship with Madeleine Bernard (1871-1895), the younger sister of the artist Émile Bernard (1868-1941). With Van Gogh in Arles By October 1888, Gauguin had accumulated debts in Pont-Aven, but he was rescued by Theo van Gogh and his brother Vincent. They invited Gauguin to join Vincent in Arles, in southern France. They shared the Yellow House in Arles, which Vincent had turned into a cozy home decorated with his paintings, including several sunflowers that Gauguin admired greatly. The two artists successfully painted for a while, each producing 20 canvases, but their strong personalities and differing views on art led to terrible conflicts. After a heated argument in late December, Gauguin spent the night at a hotel. The next morning, he returned to the Yellow House and discovered that Vincent had cut off his ear in the first of many mental breakdowns the artist would suffer. Gauguin immediately left for Paris. In February 1889, several paintings by Gauguin were exhibited in a show in Brussels organized by the renowned dealer Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922). In the same month, the artist resettled in Pont-Aven, which by then had become too touristy, so he moved to the fishing village of Le Pouldu, where he led a group of like-minded artists who considered Gauguin their leader. He also acquired a lover, Juliette Huet (alias Huais, 1866-1955), with whom he had a daughter. Tahiti and the South Seas In April 1891, Gauguin decided to leave France and head to Tahiti; leaving behind Juliette, his wife Mette, and their five children, but he visited the latter in Copenhagen in March before embarking on the Pacific journey. He financed the trip by auctioning 30 of his paintings. An agreement with the French Ministry of Fine Arts for Gauguin to depict the local customs of Tahiti on canvas allowed him to get a discount on the journey. Upon settling in Papeete, Gauguin was enchanted by his natural surroundings but disheartened by the extent to which colonization had eroded indigenous culture. Once again, he struggled to make a living as an artist and secured only one commission for a portrait. Seeking a less Europeanized place, Gauguin moved to the remote village of Mataiea in November 1891, where he rented a bamboo hut. Even here, Gauguin needed money to live, but earning cash was challenging, and he received very little from France despite sending canvases for sale. A planned exhibition in Copenhagen also yielded few significant sales. The artist took notes on local customs and wrote an illustrated journal of his experiences titled "Noa Noa" (meaning "fragrance" in Tahitian). He also began sharing his hut with a 13-year-old Tahitian girl named Tehamana (also known as Tehura). At that time, the age of consent in the islands was thirteen. They had a child together. Gauguin wrote: "I began working again, and happiness invaded me. Every day, at the first ray of sun, the light in my room was radiant. Tehura's face, golden, flooded everything around her". Things improved financially in 1892 when a schooner captain passing by purchased a painting and commissioned another. In June 1893, Gauguin was ready to return to France, and he disembarked in Marseille in August. Return to Paris Gauguin rented a studio in Paris with the money Mette had saved from sales while he was in Tahiti. Additionally, Gauguin fortuitously inherited a large sum of money from his uncle Isidore in Orleans. The artist refused to share much of the unexpected windfall with Mette, leading to their final break, even though they had planned to reunite. Mette was furious because Gauguin still wasn't providing for their children. Gauguin seemed indifferent and now lived with another lover and a young teenager, a Javanese girl named Anna. Gauguin's eccentric lifestyle, clothes, and deliberately unconventional manners continued to scandalize society and those influential in the art world. Meanwhile, Durand-Ruel organized an exhibition of Gauguin's Tahitian work in Paris in November 1893. The critical response was not enthusiastic, and sales did not cover the exhibition's expenses. Even fellow artists had mixed reactions. Monet and Renoir found Gauguin's works horrible, but Degas admired them greatly. In 1894, Gauguin moved to Brussels and then returned to Brittany. Gauguin's extravagant personality seemed to attract incidents, and in May, he got involved in a brawl with a group of sailors that resulted in a broken leg for the artist. After a lengthy recovery process, Gauguin sold the remaining paintings to finance another trip to the South Seas. In June 1895, Gauguin left France, hoping it would be definitive, and he was right. On his way to Papeete, he stopped in Auckland and was deeply impressed by the Maori art he encountered there. Tahiti and the Marquesas Back in Tahiti in September, the island seemed to have sunk even further under the weight of European colonization. In search of the last remnants of indigenous culture, he moved to the small village of Punaauia to care for his ailing health and paint. With him lived a local girl named Pau'ura a Tai (alias Pahura). A small amount of money reached him from Paris, where some dealers occasionally sold his works, but at disappointing prices. Gauguin couldn't understand why he had such a good reputation among his fellow artists without it translating into public recognition and sales. "What have I achieved? A total defeat... Bad luck has pursued me relentlessly," Gauguin wrote. He continued to paint feverishly, blending the local color with all the art he had encountered and his own imagination. In 1897, Gauguin was convinced that his health problems could only worsen, and he attempted suicide. From the depths, the artist within rose to create what he considered the best painting of his career: "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" This massive frieze-like canvas measures 4.5 meters in length, but none of its ambiguous and mystical figures provides an easy answer to the painting's title questions. Despite his artistic triumph, everyday life remained as difficult as ever. In fact, he was forced to close the circle and return to what he detested most: an office job in Papeete. At least now, he could pay off his debts and buy paints again. Later, sales in Paris and a contract with a dealer for more works allowed Gauguin to return to being a full-time artist in 1899. Back in Europe, Gauguin's reputation grew again, and renowned collectors bought his works. In September 1901, Gauguin moved to Hiva Oa (then called Dominique) in the Marquesas Islands. He sought a more authentic vision of untouched Polynesia, and it was much more affordable. He named his primitive hut "Maison du Jouir" ("House of Pleasure") and once again had a young companion, Marie Rose, the daughter of a tribal chief. Inspired by his surroundings of volcanic hills and tropical foliage, the artist painted and drew with abandon, continuing to reject academic art and focusing on light and perspective, while also softening his palette compared to Tahiti. The artist's domestic arrangements and frequent parties angered local missionaries, especially when Marie Rose and Gauguin had a daughter, Tahiatikaomata. Gauguin's health continued to deteriorate, limiting his artistic activity; instead, he wrote his memoirs: Avant et Après ("Before and After"). Death and Legacy After years of heart problems and the debilitating effects of syphilis, alcoholism, and malaria, Paul Gauguin died on May 8, 1903. He was buried in the cemetery of Hiva Oa, and his possessions and artworks were sold to the highest bidder. Gauguin's eclecticism and deceptive simplicity, expressed in paintings, prints, sculptures, and ceramics, were appreciated by only a few fellow artists and collectors during his lifetime. Furthermore, Gauguin's unconventional lifestyle had overshadowed his artistic achievements. However, in the years following his death, several exhibitions were organized that contributed to consolidating Gauguin's reputation. Gauguin's use of bold colors and the representation of primitive forms had a significant influence and inspired well-known artists such as Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Gauguin's concern for combining bold colors and forms was a crucial inspiration for the Synthetist movement, which advocated natural forms, aesthetics, and emotion in art. Gauguin was specifically named as the inspiration for another group of artists known as Les Nabis, who created art with the aim of inspiring a spiritual reaction in the viewer. In the last year of his life, Gauguin had aptly stated, "I feel that I am right about art. In any case, I will have fulfilled my duty, and there will always remain the memory of an artist who has liberated painting."

Issuer: rLzncbwKysPuA9FvrocUKBZUbQGiBBPNk3

Owner: rsN69XGcBuNFsTgc71d9FkEw7YuSbP3YFV

Price: 19.6822 XRP

Taxon: 2

• technique : oil on fabric
• culture : France, 19th century
• creation date : 1891
• artist: Paul Gauguin
• px: 14503 x 11494

NFTokenID: 00081770DB35F371D4D6B9E351DA0CF20D4EBF5F49F78DB9D2B58435042C1E9C

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