Paul Gauguin. When Will You Marry? (1892).

Paul Gauguin

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting

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When Will You Marry? (1892). Paul Gauguin
Oil on canvas. 101 cm x 77 cm
Private Collection

As an anecdote, we can mention that this is the painting for which more money was ever paid —300 million dollars—, before the auction of the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. But we give it another value: its contribution to modern painting.

Paul Gauguin is one of the Post-Impressionists —such as Van Gogh, Cézanne and Lautrec— who revolutionized the history of art by influencing on the future generations of painters during decades.

Gauguin, according to his own words, escaped from “the artificial and conventional,” by getting involved in the romantic idea of the simple and primitive life and going to Tahiti.

And in just one work we can appreciate how he breaks with four traditions of the western art at the same time:

• Draws simple, synthetic forms, definitely away from the imitation of the forms of nature.
• Employs vivid, different colors. Not the real ones but those the artist feels. He is considered one of the first artists who used color as a tool to generate a strong emotional impact.
• He does not respect the traditional rules of perspective.
• Combining the three previous elements, the artist does not paint what he sees, but the emotion that he feels with what is in front of him. He calls this theory of how to paint “Synthetism.”

And in this fascination for the primitive, the original, the authentic, we can feel how the artist gets carried away by the instinct. An element that would have a decisive role in almost every artist of the century that was about to start that new search of expressing their own truth.

Recommended links:

When does Modern Art Start?

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting: Impression, Sunrise, Claude Monet.

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting: Luncheon of the Boating Party, Renoir.

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting: Woman with Blue Eyes, Modigliani.

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Picasso.

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