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Paul Gauguin

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Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing , normally on paper , but also on fabric , wood , metal , and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine ( a printer ); however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph .

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116-649: Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin ( / ɡ oʊ ˈ ɡ æ n / ; French: [øʒɛn ɑ̃ʁi pɔl ɡoɡɛ̃] ; 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 influential practitioner of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. While only moderately successful during his lifetime, Gauguin has since been recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism . Gauguin

232-503: A Danish woman, Mette-Sophie Gad (1850–1920). Over the next ten years, they had five children: Émile (1874–1955); Aline (1877–1897); Clovis (1879–1900); Jean René (1881–1961); and Paul Rollon (1883–1961). By 1884, Gauguin had moved with his family to Copenhagen , Denmark , where he pursued a business career as a tarpaulin salesman. It was not a success: He could not speak Danish, and the Danes did not want French tarpaulins. Mette became

348-783: A Mango) and the version Gauguin painted of Édouard Manet 's Olympia . By 1890, Gauguin had conceived the project of making Tahiti his next artistic destination. A successful auction of paintings in Paris at the Hôtel Drouot in February 1891, along with other events such as a banquet and a benefit concert, provided the necessary funds. The auction had been greatly helped by a flattering review from Octave Mirbeau , courted by Gauguin through Camille Pissarro . After visiting his wife and children in Copenhagen, for what turned out to be

464-519: A brush. Then a sheet of paper , perhaps slightly damp, is placed over the block. The block is then rubbed with a baren or spoon , or is run through a printing press . If the print is in color, separate blocks can be used for each color , or a technique called reduction printing can be used. Reduction printing is a name used to describe the process of using one block to print several layers of color on one print. Both woodcuts and linocuts can employ reduction printing. This usually involves cutting

580-527: A design directly on a plank of wood , or transfers a drawing done on paper to a plank of wood. Traditionally, the artist then handed the work to a technician, who then uses sharp carving tools to carve away the parts of the block that will not receive ink. In the Western tradition, the surface of the block is then inked with the use of a brayer ; however in the Japanese tradition, woodblocks were inked with

696-416: A different print copying the first, common in early printmaking). However, impressions can vary considerably, whether intentionally or not. Master printmakers are technicians who are capable of printing identical "impressions" by hand. A print that copies another work of art, especially a painting, is known as a "reproductive print". Multiple impressions printed from the same matrix form an edition . Since

812-515: A fabric stencil technique; ink is simply pushed through the stencil against the surface of the paper, most often with the aid of a squeegee. Generally, the technique uses a natural or synthetic 'mesh' fabric stretched tightly across a rectangular 'frame,' much like a stretched canvas. The fabric can be silk, nylon monofilament, multifilament polyester, or even stainless steel. While commercial screen printing often requires high-tech, mechanical apparatuses and calibrated materials, printmakers value it for

928-542: A few travelers made their way from Europe to Peru via the Amazon River . These immigrants would seek passage on the many commercial ships going to retrieve rubber in Peru to bring back to Europe. These immigrants would arrive at the river port of Iquitos . Almost all of them stayed there. These immigrants numbered no more than a few thousand. There are also a group of Hebrew origin ( Sephardim ), although most emigrated in

1044-431: A full-time shift to painting. Gauguin's art education was largely self-taught and informal, shaped significantly by his associations with other artists rather than academic training . His entry into the art world was facilitated by his acquaintance with Camille Pissarro , a leading Impressionist . Pissarro took on a mentor role for Gauguin, introducing him to other Impressionist artists and techniques. He exhibited with

1160-487: A gradient-like quality. Mokulito is a form of lithography on wood instead of limestone. It was invented by Seishi Ozaku in the 1970s in Japan and was originally called Mokurito. Josef Albers , Ralston Crawford , Gene Davis . Robert Indiana , Roy Lichtenstein , Julian Opie , Bridget Riley , Edward Ruscha , Andy Warhol . Screen printing (occasionally known as "silkscreen", or "serigraphy") creates prints by using

1276-535: A job at the Paris Bourse ; Gauguin was 23. He became a successful Parisian businessman and remained one for the next 11 years. In 1879 he was earning 30,000 francs a year (about $ 145,000 in 2019 US dollars) as a stockbroker, and as much again in his dealings in the art market. But in 1882 the Paris stock market crashed and the art market contracted. Gauguin's earnings deteriorated sharply and he eventually decided to pursue painting full-time. In 1873, he married

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1392-550: A lewd manner would sell. Gauguin held a profound contempt for Panama, and at one point was arrested in Panama City for urinating in public. Marched across town at gunpoint, Gauguin was ordered to pay a fine of four francs. After discovering that land on Taboga was priced far beyond reach (and after falling deathly ill on the island where he was subsequently interned in a yellow fever and malaria sanatorium), he decided to leave Panama. Later that same year, Gauguin and Laval spent

1508-433: A local journal opposed to the colonial government, Les Guêpes (The Wasps) , that had recently been formed, and eventually edited his own monthly publication Le Sourire: Journal sérieux (The Smile: A Serious Newspaper) , later titled simply Journal méchant (A Wicked Newspaper) . A certain amount of artwork and woodcuts from his newspaper survive. In February 1900 he became the editor of Les Guêpes itself, for which he drew

1624-644: A marriage contracted in the course of a single afternoon. This was Teha'amana , called Tehura in the travelogue, who was pregnant by him by the end of summer 1892. Teha'amana was the subject of several of Gauguin's paintings, including Merahi metua no Tehamana and the celebrated Spirit of the Dead Watching , as well as a notable woodcarving Tehura now in the Musée d'Orsay . By the end of July 1893, Gauguin had decided to leave Tahiti and he would never see Teha'amana or their child again even after returning to

1740-412: A metal plate. Where the etching technique uses a needle to make lines that retain ink, traditional aquatint relies on powdered rosin which is acid resistant in the ground to create a tonal effect. The rosin is applied in a light dusting by a fan booth, the rosin is then cooked until set on the plate. At this time the rosin can be burnished or scratched out to affect its tonal qualities. The tonal variation

1856-426: A mezzotint, the surface of a copper printing plate is roughened evenly all over with the aid of a tool known as a rocker; the image is then formed by smoothing the surface with a tool known as a burnisher. When inked, the roughened areas of the plate will hold more ink and print more darkly, while smoother areas of the plate hold less or no ink, and will print more lightly or not at all. It is, however, possible to create

1972-509: A native-style bamboo hut. Here he executed paintings depicting Tahitian life such as Fatata te Miti (By the Sea) and Ia Orana Maria (Ave Maria) , the latter to become his most prized Tahitian painting. Many of his finest paintings date from this period. His first portrait of a Tahitian model is thought to be Vahine no te tiare ( Woman with a Flower ). The painting is notable for the care with which it delineates Polynesian features. He sent

2088-477: A painter at Arles. While Vincent did briefly experiment with Gauguin's theory of "painting from the imagination" in paintings such as Memory of the Garden at Etten , it did not suit him and he quickly returned to painting from nature. Although Gauguin made some of his early strides in the world of art under Pissarro, Edgar Degas was Gauguin's most admired contemporary artist and a great influence on his work from

2204-413: A point where they were almost hard to understand by native Tahitian speakers themselves. Gauguin was lent copies of Jacques-Antoine Moerenhout's  [ fr ] 1837 Voyage aux îles du Grand Océan and Edmond de Bovis'  [ fr ] 1855 État de la société tahitienne à l'arrivée des Européens , containing full accounts of Tahiti's forgotten culture and religion. Gauguin was fascinated by

2320-486: A popular guide-book on Brittany, had caught the imagination of the avant-garde student artists at Pont-Aven, anxious to free themselves from the conservatism of their academies, and Gauguin consciously imitated them in his sketches of Breton girls. These sketches were later worked up into paintings back in his Paris studio. The most important of these is Four Breton Women , which shows a marked departure from his earlier Impressionist style as well as incorporating something of

2436-782: A salary, and he continued as editor until he left Tahiti in September 1901. The paper under his editorship was noted for its scurrilous attacks on the governor and officialdom in general, but was not in fact a champion of native causes, although perceived as such nevertheless. Printmaker Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix to a sheet of paper or other material, by a variety of techniques. Common types of matrices include: metal plates for engraving , etching and related intaglio printing techniques; stone, aluminum, or polymer for lithography ; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings ; and linoleum for linocuts . Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for

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2552-430: A small amount of the block away, and then printing the block many times over on different sheets before washing the block, cutting more away and printing the next color on top. This allows the previous color to show through. This process can be repeated many times over. The advantages of this process is that only one block is needed, and that different components of an intricate design will line up perfectly. The disadvantage

2668-418: A spacious reed and thatch house at Puna'auia in an affluent area ten miles east of Papeete, settled by wealthy families, in which he installed a large studio, sparing no expense. Jules Agostini, an acquaintance of Gauguin's and an accomplished amateur photographer, photographed the house in 1896. Later a sale of land obliged him to build a new one in the same neighbourhood. He maintained a horse and trap , so

2784-484: A table, paper is placed on the ink, and the back of the paper is drawn on, transferring the ink to the paper. Monoprints can also be made by altering the type, color, and viscosity of the ink used to create different prints. Traditional printmaking techniques, such as lithography, woodcut, and intaglio, can be used to make monoprints. Mixed-media prints may use multiple traditional printmaking processes such as etching, woodcut, letterpress, silkscreen, or even monoprinting in

2900-399: A traditional printing press. Images can be printed to a variety of substrates including paper, cloth, or plastic canvas. Dye-based inks are organic (not mineral ) dissolved and mixed into a liquid. Although most are synthetic, derived from petroleum , they can be made from vegetable or animal sources. Dyes are well suited for textiles where the liquid dye penetrates and chemically bonds to

3016-565: A type of relief print , is the earliest printmaking technique. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, and by the 5th century was used in China for printing text and images on paper. Woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Europe, and slightly later in Japan. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text. The artist either draws

3132-426: A unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. Other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulettes (a tool with a fine-toothed wheel) and burnishers (a tool used for making an object smooth or shiny by rubbing) are used for texturing effects. To make a print, the engraved plate is inked all over, then the ink is wiped off the surface, leaving ink only in

3248-634: Is viscosity printing . Contemporary printmaking may include digital printing , photographic mediums, or a combination of digital, photographic, and traditional processes. Many of these techniques can also be combined, especially within the same family. For example, Rembrandt's prints are usually referred to as "etchings" for convenience, but very often include work in engraving and drypoint as well, and sometimes have no etching at all. Albrecht Dürer , Hans Burgkmair , Ugo da Carpi , Hiroshige , Hokusai , Frans Masereel , Gustave Baumann , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Eric Slater Antonio Frasconi Woodcut,

3364-400: Is a form of printmaking that uses a matrix such as a woodblock, litho stone, or copper plate, but produces impressions that are unique. Multiple unique impressions printed from a single matrix are sometimes known as a variable edition. There are many techniques used in monoprinting, including collagraph , collage , hand-painted additions, and a form of tracing by which thick ink is laid down on

3480-407: Is a technique invented in 1798 by Alois Senefelder and based on the chemical repulsion of oil and water . A porous surface, normally limestone , is used; the image is drawn on the limestone with a greasy medium. Acid is applied, transferring the grease-protected design to the limestone, leaving the image 'burned' into the surface. Gum arabic , a water-soluble substance, is then applied, sealing

3596-715: Is based on the French word gicleur, which means "nozzle". Today fine art prints produced on large format ink-jet machines using the CcMmYK color model are generally called "Giclée". Spanish immigration to Peru A Spanish Peruvian is a Peruvian citizen of Spanish descent . Among European Peruvians , the Spanish are the largest group of immigrants to settle in the country. The regions from which most Spanish immigrants originated were Extremadura , Castilla y León , País Vasco , Andalucía , Galicia and Cataluña . Most of

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3712-501: Is called a "ghost print" or "cognate". Stencils, watercolor, solvents, brushes, and other tools are often used to embellish a monotype print. Monotypes are often spontaneously executed and with no preliminary sketch. Monotypes are the most painterly method among the printmaking techniques, a unique print that is essentially a printed painting. The principal characteristic of this medium is found in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting, and drawing media. Monoprinting

3828-464: Is characterised by Thomson as an essentially negative one, his disillusionment with the Paris art scene compounded by two attacks on him in the same issue of Mercure de France ; one by Emile Bernard , the other by Camille Mauclair . Mathews remarks that his isolation in Paris had become so bitter that he had no choice but to try to reclaim his place in Tahiti society. He arrived in September 1895 and

3944-408: Is controlled by the level of acid exposure over large areas, and thus the image is shaped by large sections at a time. Contemporary printmakers also sometimes using airbrushed asphaltum or spray paint , as well as other non toxic techniques, to achieve aquatint due to rosin boxes posing a fire hazard. Goya used aquatint for most of his prints. Mary Cassatt , Francis Seymour Haden , Master of

4060-404: Is part of the intaglio family. In pure etching, a metal plate (usually copper, zinc, or steel) is covered with a waxy or acrylic ground . The artist then draws through the ground with a pointed etching needle, exposing the metal. The plate is then etched by dipping it in a bath of etchant (e.g. nitric acid or ferric chloride ). The etchant "bites" into the exposed metal, leaving behind lines in

4176-422: Is placed on the surface, and the image is transferred to the paper by the pressure of the printing press. Lithography is known for its ability to capture fine gradations in shading and very small detail. Photo-lithography captures an image by photographic processes on metal plates; printing is more or less carried out in the same way as stone lithography. Halftone lithography produces an image that illustrates

4292-650: Is replicated on his fans. Rural and indigenous populations remained a popular subject in Gauguin's work after he left the island. Gauguin's Martinique paintings were exhibited at his colour merchant Arsène Poitier's gallery. There they were seen and admired by Vincent van Gogh and his art dealer brother Theo , whose firm Goupil & Cie had dealings with Portier. Theo purchased three of Gauguin's paintings for 900 francs and arranged to have them hung at Goupil's, thus introducing Gauguin to wealthy clients. This arrangement with Goupil's continued past Theo's death in 1891. At

4408-645: Is that once the artist moves on to the next layer, no more prints can be made. Another variation of woodcut printmaking is the cukil technique, made famous by the Taring Padi underground community in Java, Indonesia. Taring Padi Posters usually resemble intricately printed cartoon posters embedded with political messages. Images—usually resembling a visually complex scenario—are carved unto a wooden surface called cukilan, then smothered with printer's ink before pressing it unto media such as paper or canvas. The process

4524-425: Is then transferred onto a sheet of paper by pressing the two together, usually using a printing-press. Monotypes can also be created by inking an entire surface and then, using brushes or rags, removing ink to create a subtractive image, e.g. creating lights from a field of opaque color. The inks used may be oil based or water based. With oil based inks, the paper may be dry, in which case the image has more contrast, or

4640-549: Is used. In the 20th century, true engraving was revived as a serious art form by artists including Stanley William Hayter whose Atelier 17 in Paris and New York City became the magnet for such artists as Pablo Picasso , Alberto Giacometti , Mauricio Lasansky and Joan Miró . Albrecht Dürer , Rembrandt , Francisco Goya , Wenceslaus Hollar , Whistler , Otto Dix , James Ensor , Edward Hopper , Käthe Kollwitz , Pablo Picasso , Cy Twombly , Lucas van Leyden Etching

4756-472: Is well known for his relationship with Vincent and Theo van Gogh . Gauguin was born in Paris to Clovis Gauguin and Aline Chazal on 7 June 1848, the year of revolutionary upheavals throughout Europe. His father, a 34-year-old liberal journalist from a family of entrepreneurs in Orléans, was compelled to flee France when the newspaper for which he wrote was suppressed by French authorities. Gauguin's mother

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4872-550: The Metropolitan Museum of Art . His illustrated notebook of the time, Ancien Culte Mahorie  [ it ] , is preserved in the Louvre and was published in facsimile form in 1951. In all, Gauguin sent nine of his paintings to Monfreid in Paris. These were eventually exhibited in Copenhagen in a joint exhibition with the late Vincent van Gogh. Reports that they had been well received (though in fact only two of

4988-553: The Peruvian city of Arequipa . He was an officer of the Dragoons . Members of the wealthy Tristan Moscoso family held powerful positions in Peru. Nonetheless, Don Mariano's unexpected death plunged his mistress and daughter Flora into poverty. When Flora's marriage with André failed, she petitioned for and obtained a small monetary settlement from her father's Peruvian relatives. She sailed to Peru in hopes of enlarging her share of

5104-574: The Western civilization , driven by the colonialist tropes of exoticism prevalent at the time. During that time, he controversially married three adolescent Tahitian girls with whom he later fathered children. Gauguin's later years in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands were marked by health issues and financial struggles. His paintings from that period, characterized by vivid colors and Symbolist themes, would prove highly successful among

5220-400: The screen printing process. Other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below. Except in the case of monotyping , all printmaking processes have the capacity to produce identical multiples of the same artwork, which is called a print. Each print produced is considered an "original" work of art, and is correctly referred to as an "impression", not a "copy" (that means

5336-448: The "Do It Yourself" approach, and the low technical requirements, high quality results. The essential tools required are a squeegee, a mesh fabric, a frame, and a stencil. Unlike many other printmaking processes, a printing press is not required, as screen printing is essentially stencil printing. Screen printing may be adapted to printing on a variety of materials, from paper, cloth, and canvas to rubber, glass, and metal. Artists have used

5452-515: The 1886 eighth Impressionist exhibition. He mainly painted landscapes such as La Bergère Bretonne ("The Breton Shepherdess"), in which the figure plays a subordinate role. His Jeunes Bretons au bain ("Young Breton Boys Bathing"), introducing a theme he returned to each time he visited Pont-Aven, is clearly indebted to Degas in its design and bold use of pure colour. The naive drawings of the English illustrator Randolph Caldecott , used to illustrate

5568-670: The Colonial era. The Sephardim who emigrated to different countries to late nineteenth and twentieth centuries were mainly from North Africa , Anatolia and the Balkans , and not necessarily from Spain or Portugal. As a result of Alhambra Decree and the conversions due to the Inquisition in Spain, Portugal and its respective colonies since the late fifteenth century until early nineteenth, mostly emigrated to North Africa , regions of

5684-538: The European viewers for their exploration of the relationships between people, nature, and the spiritual world . Gauguin's art became popular after his death, partially from the efforts of dealer Ambroise Vollard , who organized exhibitions of his work late in his career and assisted in organizing two important posthumous exhibitions in Paris. His work was influential on the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse , and he

5800-461: The Housebook , Richard Spare , William Lionel Wyllie A variant of engraving, done with a sharp point, rather than a v-shaped burin . While engraved lines are very smooth and hard-edged, drypoint scratching leaves a rough burr at the edges of each line. This burr gives drypoint prints a characteristically soft, and sometimes blurry, line quality. Because the pressure of printing quickly destroys

5916-582: The Impressionists in the early 1880s, but soon began developing his distinct style, characterized by a bolder use of color and less traditional subject matter. His work in Brittany and Martinique showcased his inclination towards depicting native life and landscapes . By the 1890s, Gauguin's art took a significant turn during his time in Tahiti , then a French colony , where he sought a refuge from

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6032-581: The Javanese  [ ca ] . Despite the moderate success of his November exhibition, he subsequently lost Durand-Ruel's patronage in circumstances that are not clear. Mathews characterises this as a tragedy for Gauguin's career. Amongst other things he lost the chance of an introduction to the American market. The start of 1894 found him preparing woodcuts using an experimental technique for his proposed travelogue Noa Noa . He returned to Pont-Aven for

6148-554: The Lycée Jeanne D'Arc. Gauguin signed on as a pilot 's assistant in the merchant marine . Three years later, he joined the French navy in which he served for two years. His mother died on 7 July 1867, but he did not learn of it for several months until a letter from his sister Marie caught up with him in India. In 1871, Gauguin returned to Paris where he secured a job as a stockbroker. A close family friend, Gustave Arosa , got him

6264-601: The Medieval cloisonné enameling technique. Gauguin was very appreciative of Bernard's art and of his daring with the employment of a style which suited Gauguin in his quest to express the essence of the objects in his art. In Gauguin's The Yellow Christ (1889), often cited as a quintessential Cloisonnist work, the image was reduced to areas of pure colour separated by heavy black outlines. In such works Gauguin paid little attention to classical perspective and boldly eliminated subtle gradations of colour, thereby dispensing with

6380-606: The Peruvian Tristan Moscoso clan of a generous annuity arranged by her granduncle, Aline settled in Paris to work as a dressmaker. After attending a couple of local schools, Gauguin was sent to the prestigious Catholic boarding school Petit Séminaire de La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin . He spent three years at the school. At the age of 14, he entered the Loriol Institute in Paris, a naval preparatory school, before returning to Orléans to take his final year at

6496-491: The Tahitian paintings were sold and his earlier paintings were unfavourably compared with van Gogh's) were sufficiently encouraging for Gauguin to contemplate returning with some seventy others he had completed. He had in any case largely run out of funds, depending on a state grant for a free passage home. In addition he had some health problems diagnosed as heart problems by the local doctor, which Mathews suggests may have been

6612-573: The Tristan Moscoso family fortune. This never materialized; but she successfully published a popular travelogue of her experiences in Peru which launched her literary career in 1838. An active supporter of early socialist societies, Gauguin's maternal grandmother helped to lay the foundations for the 1848 revolutionary movements. Placed under surveillance by French police and suffering from overwork, she died in 1844. Her grandson Paul "idolized his grandmother, and kept copies of her books with him to

6728-464: The accounts of Arioi society and their god 'Oro . Because these accounts contained no illustrations and the Tahitian models had in any case long disappeared, he could give free rein to his imagination. He executed some twenty paintings and a dozen woodcarvings over the next year. The first of these was Te aa no areois (The Seed of the Areoi) , representing Oro's terrestrial wife Vairaumati, now held by

6844-547: The art of Africa and Asia seemed to him full of mystic symbolism and vigour. There was a vogue in Europe at the time for the art of other cultures, especially that of Japan ( Japonism ). He was invited to participate in the 1889 exhibition organized by Les XX . Under the influence of folk art and Japanese prints , Gauguin's work evolved towards Cloisonnism , a style given its name by the critic Édouard Dujardin to describe Émile Bernard 's method of painting with flat areas of colour and bold outlines, which reminded Dujardin of

6960-511: The art world in Paris and spent his first winter back in real poverty, obliged to take a series of menial jobs. Clovis eventually fell ill and was sent to a boarding school, Gauguin's sister Marie providing the funds. During this first year, Gauguin produced very little art. He exhibited 19 paintings and a wood relief at the eighth (and last) Impressionist exhibition in May 1886. Most of these paintings were earlier work from Rouen or Copenhagen and there

7076-418: The beginning, with his figures and interiors as well as a carved and painted medallion of singer Valérie Roumi. He had a deep reverence for Degas' artistic dignity and tact. It was Gauguin's healthiest, longest-lasting friendship, spanning his entire artistic career until his death. In addition to being one of his earliest supporters, including buying Gauguin's work and persuading dealer Paul Durand-Ruel to do

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7192-492: The burr, drypoint is useful only for very small editions; as few as ten or twenty impressions. To counter this, and allow for longer print runs, electro-plating (here called steelfacing) has been used since the nineteenth century to harden the surface of a plate. The technique appears to have been invented by the Housebook Master , a south German fifteenth-century artist, all of whose prints are in drypoint only. Among

7308-433: The chief breadwinner, giving French lessons to trainee diplomats. His middle-class family and marriage fell apart after 11 years when Gauguin was driven to paint full-time. He returned to Paris in 1885, after his wife and her family asked him to leave because he had renounced the values they shared. Gauguin's last physical contact with them was in 1891, and Mette eventually broke with him decisively in 1894. In 1873, around

7424-555: The colonial immigrants, in consequence, went from the southern regions of Spain to what now is considered the coastal Peruvian region. These immigrants generally departed from the ports of Cadiz and Sevilla and arrived in the ports of Callao , Mollendo and Pimentel . Many of these immigrants made a stopover in a Caribbean port before arriving in Peru. Before the development of the Panama Canal ships were forced to go around Cape Horn to reach Peruvian ports. Although not many,

7540-564: The colony and already much influenced by French and European culture. His biographer Belinda Thomson observes that he must have been disappointed in his vision of a primitive idyll. He was unable to afford the pleasure-seeking life-style in Papeete, and an early attempt at a portrait, Suzanne Bambridge , was not well liked. He decided to set up his studio in Mataiea, Papeari , some 45 kilometres (28 mi) from Papeete, installing himself in

7656-421: The creation of the print. They may also incorporate elements of chine colle, collage, or painted areas, and may be unique, i.e. one-off, non-editioned, prints. Mixed-media prints are often experimental prints and may be printed on unusual, non-traditional surfaces. Istvan Horkay , Ralph Goings , Enrique Chagoya Digital prints refers to images printed using digital printers such as inkjet printers instead of

7772-515: The crevices hold ink. A non-toxic form of etching that does not involve an acid is Electroetching . John Martin , Ludwig von Siegen , John Smith , Wallerant Vaillant , Carol Wax An intaglio variant of engraving in which the image is formed from subtle gradations of light and shade. Mezzotint—from the Italian mezzo ("half") and tinta ("tone")—is a "dark manner" form of printmaking, which requires artists to work from dark to light. To create

7888-567: The day or for the morrow." By the time he reached the port city of Colón , Gauguin was out of money and found work as a laborer on the French construction of the Panama Canal . During this time, Gauguin penned letters to his wife, Mette, lamenting the arduous conditions: "I have to dig… from five-thirty in the morning to six in the evening, under the tropical sun and rain," he wrote. "At night I am devoured by mosquitoes." Meanwhile, Laval had been earning money by drawing portraits of canal officials, work which Gauguin detested since only portraits done in

8004-525: The early signs of cardiovascular syphilis . Gauguin later wrote a travelogue (first published 1901) titled Noa Noa  [ ca ] , originally conceived as commentary on his paintings and describing his experiences in Tahiti. Modern critics have suggested that the contents of the book were in part fantasized and plagiarized. In it he revealed that he had at this time taken a 13-year-old girl as native wife or vahine (the Tahitian word for "woman"),

8120-481: The end of his life". In 1850, Clovis Gauguin departed for Peru with his wife Aline and young children in hopes of continuing his journalistic career under the auspices of his wife's South American relations. He died of a heart attack en route, and Aline arrived in Peru as a widow with the 18-month-old Paul and his 2 1 ⁄ 2 year-old sister, Marie. Gauguin's mother was welcomed by her paternal granduncle, whose son-in-law, José Rufino Echenique , would shortly assume

8236-424: The engraved lines. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the engraved lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times; typically several hundred impressions (copies) could be printed before the printing plate shows much sign of wear, except when drypoint , which gives much shallower lines,

8352-412: The evening of 23 December 1888, according to a much later account of Gauguin's, Vincent confronted Gauguin with a straight razor . Later the same evening, he cut off his own left ear. He wrapped the severed tissue in newspaper and handed it to a woman who worked at a brothel Gauguin and Vincent had both visited, and asked her to "keep this object carefully, in remembrance of me". Vincent was hospitalized

8468-523: The exotic location and natives represented in his paintings. Gauguin asserted that four of his paintings on the island were better than the rest. The works as a whole are brightly coloured, loosely painted, outdoor figural scenes. Even though his time on the island was short, it surely was influential. He recycled some of his figures and sketches in later paintings, such as the motif in Among the Mangoes , which

8584-721: The exotic sumptuousness of Gauguin's conjured folklore. In appreciation, Gauguin presented Degas with The Moon and the Earth , one of the exhibited paintings that had attracted the most hostile criticism. Gauguin's late canvas Riders on the Beach (two versions) recalls Degas' horse pictures that he started in the 1860s, specifically Racetrack and Before the Race , testifying to his enduring effect on Gauguin. Degas later purchased two paintings at Gauguin's 1895 auction to raise funds for his final trip to Tahiti. These were Vahine no te vi (Woman with

8700-399: The fiber. Because of the deep penetration, more layers of material must lose their color before the fading is apparent. Dyes, however, are not suitable for the relatively thin layers of ink laid out on the surface of a print. Pigment is a finely ground, particulate substance which, when mixed or ground into a liquid to make ink or paint, does not dissolve, but remains dispersed or suspended in

8816-530: The following day and Gauguin left Arles. They never saw each other again, but they continued to correspond, and in 1890 Gauguin went so far as to propose they form an artist studio in Antwerp . An 1889 sculptural self-portrait Jug in the Form of a Head appears to reference Gauguin's traumatic relationship with Vincent. Gauguin later claimed to have been instrumental in influencing Vincent van Gogh's development as

8932-517: The following year. After a brief period in Italy, spent in the small towns of San Salvo and Ururi, Gauguin returned to Paris in June 1885, accompanied by his six-year-old son Clovis. The other children remained with Mette in Copenhagen, where they had the support of family and friends while Mette herself was able to get work as a translator and French teacher. Gauguin initially found it difficult to re-enter

9048-427: The image by only roughening the plate selectively, so working from light to dark. Mezzotint is known for the luxurious quality of its tones: first, because an evenly, finely roughened surface holds a lot of ink, allowing deep solid colors to be printed; secondly because the process of smoothing the texture with burin, burnisher and scraper allows fine gradations in tone to be developed. The mezzotint printmaking method

9164-667: The island several years later. A digital catalogue raisonné of the paintings from this period was released by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute in 2021. In August 1893, Gauguin returned to France, where he continued to execute paintings on Tahitian subjects such as Mahana no atua (Day of the God) and Nave nave moe (Sacred spring, sweet dreams) . An exhibition at the Durand-Ruel gallery in November 1894

9280-463: The last time, Gauguin set sail for Tahiti on 1 April 1891, promising to return a rich man and make a fresh start. His avowed intent was to escape European civilization and "everything that is artificial and conventional". Nevertheless, he took care to take with him a collection of visual stimuli in the form of photographs, drawings and prints. He spent the first three months in Papeete , the capital of

9396-438: The late 19th century, artists have generally signed individual impressions from an edition and often number the impressions to form a limited edition; the matrix is then destroyed so that no more prints can be produced. Prints may also be printed in book form, such as illustrated books or artist's books . Printmaking techniques are generally divided into the following basic categories: A type of printmaking outside of this group

9512-439: The liquid. Pigments are categorized as either inorganic (mineral) or organic (synthetic). Pigment-based inks have a much longer permanence than dye-based inks. Giclée (pron.: /ʒiːˈkleɪ/ zhee-KLAY or /dʒiːˈkleɪ/), is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for digital prints made on inkjet printers. Originally associated with early dye-based printers it is now more often refers to pigment-based prints. The word

9628-590: The most common estimate), traveled widely and apparently came into contact with a small community of Indian immigrants; a contact that would later influence his art through the incorporation of Indian symbols. During his stay, the writer Lafcadio Hearn was also on the island. His account provides an historical comparison to accompany Gauguin's images. Gauguin finished 11 known paintings during his stay in Martinique, many of which seem to be derived from his hut. His letters to Schuffenecker express an excitement about

9744-514: The most famous artists of the old master print, Albrecht Dürer produced three drypoints before abandoning the technique; Rembrandt used it frequently, but usually in conjunction with etching and engraving. Honoré Daumier , Vincent van Gogh , George Bellows , Pierre Bonnard , Edvard Munch , Emil Nolde , Pablo Picasso , Odilon Redon , Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , Salvador Dalí , M. C. Escher , Willem de Kooning , Joan Miró , Stow Wengenroth , Elaine de Kooning , Louise Nevelson Lithography

9860-419: The most popular printmaking medium. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving which requires special skill in metalworking, etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing. Etching prints are generally linear and often contain fine detail and contours. Lines can vary from smooth to sketchy. An etching is opposite of a woodcut in that the raised portions of an etching remain blank while

9976-645: The naive quality of Caldecott's illustration, exaggerating features to the point of caricature. Gauguin, along with Émile Bernard , Charles Laval, Émile Schuffenecker and many others, re-visited Pont-Aven after his travels in Panama and Martinique. The bold use of pure colour and Symbolist choice of subject matter distinguish what is now called the Pont-Aven School . Disappointed with Impressionism , Gauguin felt that traditional European painting had become too imitative and lacked symbolic depth. By contrast,

10092-524: The next two years he slowly formulated his plans to become a full-time artist. The following two summers, he painted with Pissarro and occasionally Paul Cézanne . In October 1883, he wrote to Pissarro saying that he had decided to make his living from painting at all costs and asked for his help, which Pissarro at first readily provided. The following January, Gauguin moved with his family to Rouen , where they could live more cheaply and where he thought he had discerned opportunities when visiting Pissarro there

10208-496: The only sculpture in the 4th Impressionist Exhibition of 1879). His paintings received dismissive reviews, although several of them, such as The Market Gardens of Vaugirard , are now highly regarded. In 1882, the stock market crashed and the art market contracted. Paul Durand-Ruel , the Impressionists' primary art dealer, was especially affected by the crash, and for a period of time stopped buying pictures from painters such as Gauguin. Gauguin's earnings contracted sharply, and over

10324-532: The painting to his patron George-Daniel de Monfreid , a friend of Schuffenecker, who was to become Gauguin's devoted champion in Tahiti. By late summer 1892 this painting was being displayed at Goupil's gallery in Paris. Art historian Nancy Mowll Mathews believes that Gauguin's encounter with exotic sensuality in Tahiti, so evident in the painting, was by far the most important aspect of his sojourn there. He often rendered titles of his works in Tahitian , some of these titles however were sometimes very misconjugated to

10440-400: The paper may be damp, in which case the image has a 10 percent greater range of tones. Unlike monoprinting , monotyping produces a unique print, or monotype, because most of the ink is removed during the initial pressing. Although subsequent reprintings are sometimes possible, they differ greatly from the first print and are generally considered inferior. A second print from the original plate

10556-433: The plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate, and the printing process is then just the same as for engraving . Although the first dated etching is by Albrecht Dürer in 1515, the process is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer ( c.  1470–1536 ) of Augsburg, Germany, who decorated armor in this way, and applied the method to printmaking. Etching soon came to challenge engraving as

10672-532: The presidency of Peru. To the age of six, Paul enjoyed a privileged upbringing, attended by nursemaids and servants. He retained a vivid memory of that period of his childhood which instilled "indelible impressions of Peru that haunted him the rest of his life". Gauguin's idyllic childhood ended abruptly when his family mentors fell from political power during Peruvian civil conflicts in 1854. Aline returned to France with her children, leaving Paul with his paternal grandfather, Guillaume Gauguin, in Orléans. Deprived by

10788-417: The previous summer. However, the venture proved unsuccessful, and by the end of the year Mette and the children moved to Copenhagen , Gauguin following shortly after in November 1884, bringing with him his art collection, which subsequently remained in Copenhagen. Life in Copenhagen proved equally difficult, and their marriage grew strained. At Mette's urging, supported by her family, Gauguin returned to Paris

10904-513: The repatriation policy, Gauguin and Laval decided to disembark at the Martinique port of St. Pierre. Scholars disagree on whether Gauguin intentionally or spontaneously decided to stay on the island. At first, the 'negro hut' in which they lived suited him, and he enjoyed watching people in their daily activities. However, the weather in the summer was hot and the hut leaked in the rain. Gauguin also suffered dysentery and marsh fever . While in Martinique, he produced between 10 and 20 works (12 being

11020-470: The river to the poorer, newer, urban sprawls" of Vaugirard  [ fr ] . Here, on the third floor at 8 rue Carcel, he had his first home with a studio . His close friend Émile Schuffenecker , a former stockbroker who also aspired to become an artist, lived close by. Gauguin showed paintings in Impressionist exhibitions held in 1881 and 1882 (earlier, a sculpture of his son Émile had been

11136-627: The same time, Vincent and Gauguin became close friends (on Vincent's part it amounted to something akin to adulation) and they corresponded together on art, a correspondence that was instrumental in Gauguin formulating his philosophy of art . In 1888, at Theo's instigation, Gauguin and Vincent spent nine weeks painting together at Vincent's Yellow House in Arles in the South of France. Gauguin's relationship with Vincent proved fraught. Their relationship deteriorated and eventually Gauguin decided to leave. On

11252-548: The same, there was never a public support for Gauguin more unwavering than from Degas. Gauguin also purchased work from Degas in the early to mid-1870s and his own monotyping predilection was probably influenced by Degas' advancements in the medium. Gauguin's Durand-Ruel exhibition in November 1893, which Degas chiefly organized, received mixed reviews. Among the mocking were Claude Monet , Pierre-Auguste Renoir and former friend Pissarro. Degas, however, praised his work, purchasing Te faaturuma  [ es ] and admiring

11368-414: The state of modern ceramics to Le Soir . By this time it had become clear that he and his wife Mette were irrevocably separated. Although there had been hopes of a reconciliation, they had quickly quarrelled over money matters and neither visited the other. Gauguin initially refused to share any part of a 13,000-franc inheritance from his uncle Isidore which he had come into shortly after returning. Mette

11484-680: The summer. In February 1895 he attempted an auction of his paintings at Hôtel Drouot in Paris, similar to the one of 1891, but this was not a success. The dealer Ambroise Vollard , however, showed his paintings at his gallery in March 1895, but they unfortunately did not come to terms at that date. He submitted a large ceramic sculpture he called Oviri he had fired the previous winter to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts 1895 salon opening in April. There are conflicting versions of how it

11600-404: The surface of the stone not covered with the drawing medium. The stone is wetted, with water staying only on the surface not covered in grease-based residue of the drawing; the stone is then 'rolled up', meaning oil ink is applied with a roller covering the entire surface; since water repels the oil in the ink, the ink adheres only to the greasy parts, perfectly inking the image. A sheet of dry paper

11716-421: The technique to print on bottles, on slabs of granite, directly onto walls, and to reproduce images on textiles which would distort under pressure from printing presses. Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The image

11832-487: The time from June to November near Saint Pierre on the Caribbean island of Martinique , a French colony. His thoughts and experiences during this time are recorded in his letters to his wife and his artist friend Emile Schuffenecker. At the time, France had a policy of repatriation where if a citizen became broke or stranded on a French colony, the state would pay for the boat ride back. Upon leaving Panama, protected by

11948-507: The time he became a stockbroker, Gauguin began painting in his free time. His Parisian life centered on the 9th arrondissement of Paris . Gauguin lived at 15, rue la Bruyère. Nearby were the cafés frequented by the Impressionists. Gauguin also visited galleries frequently and purchased work by emerging artists. He formed a friendship with Camille Pissarro and visited him on Sundays to paint in his garden. Pissarro introduced him to various other artists. In 1877 Gauguin "moved downmarket and across

12064-462: The two most characteristic principles of post- Renaissance painting. His painting later evolved towards Synthetism in which neither form nor colour predominate but each has an equal role. In 1887, Gauguin left France along with his friend, another young painter, Charles Laval . His dream was to purchase land of his own on the small Panamanian island of Taboga , where he stated he desired to live "on fish and fruit and for nothing… without anxiety for

12180-468: The year broke decisively with Pissarro, who from that point on was rather antagonistic towards Gauguin. Gauguin spent the summer of 1886 in the artist's colony of Pont-Aven in Brittany. He was attracted in the first place because it was cheap to live there. However, he found himself an unexpected success with the young art students who flocked there in the summer. His naturally pugilistic temperament (he

12296-542: Was a moderate success, selling at quite elevated prices 11 of the 40 paintings exhibited. He set up an apartment at 6 rue Vercingétorix, on the edge of the Montparnasse district frequented by artists, and began to conduct a weekly salon . He affected an exotic persona , dressing in Polynesian costume, and conducted a public affair with a young woman still in her teens, "half Indian, half Malayan", known as Annah

12412-587: Was born in Paris in 1848, amidst the tumult of Europe's revolutionary year . In 1850, Gauguin's family settled in Peru , where he experienced a privileged childhood that left a lasting impression on him. Later, financial struggles led them back to France, where Gauguin received formal education. Initially working as a stockbroker, Gauguin started painting in his spare time, his interest in art kindled by visits to galleries and exhibitions . The financial crisis of 1882 significantly impacted his brokerage career, prompting

12528-440: Was both an accomplished boxer and fencer) was no impediment in the socially relaxed seaside resort. He was remembered during that period as much for his outlandish appearance as for his art. Amongst these new associates was Charles Laval , who would accompany Gauguin the following year to Panama and Martinique . That summer, he executed some pastel drawings of nude figures in the manner of Pissarro and those by Degas exhibited at

12644-457: Was developed in Germany in the 1430s from the engraving used by goldsmiths to decorate metalwork. Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface of a metal plate, traditionally made of copper. Engraving using a burin is generally a difficult skill to learn. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types. The burin produces

12760-514: Was eventually gifted 1,500 francs, but she was outraged and from that point on kept in contact with him only through Schuffenecker—doubly galling for Gauguin, as his friend thus knew the true extent of his betrayal. By mid 1895 attempts to raise funds for Gauguin's return to Tahiti had failed, and he began accepting charity from friends. In June 1895 Eugène Carrière arranged a cheap passage back to Tahiti, and Gauguin never saw Europe again. Gauguin set out for Tahiti again on 28 June 1895. His return

12876-491: Was in a position to travel daily to Papeete to participate in the social life of the colony should he wish. He subscribed to the Mercure de France (indeed was a shareholder), by then France's foremost critical journal, and kept up an active correspondence with fellow artists, dealers, critics, and patrons in Paris. During his year in Papeete and thereafter, he played an increasing role in local politics, contributing abrasively to

12992-516: Was invented by Ludwig von Siegen (1609–1680). The process was used widely in England from the mid-eighteenth century, to reproduce oil paintings and in particular portraits. Norman Ackroyd , Jean-Baptiste Le Prince , William Daniell , Francisco Goya , Thomas Rowlandson A technique used in Intaglio etchings. Like etching, aquatint technique involves the application of acid to make marks in

13108-440: Was nothing really novel in the few new ones, although his Baigneuses à Dieppe ("Women Bathing") introduced what was to become a recurring motif, the woman in the waves. Nevertheless, Félix Bracquemond did purchase one of his paintings. This exhibition also established Georges Seurat as leader of the avant-garde movement in Paris. Gauguin contemptuously rejected Seurat's Neo-Impressionist Pointillist technique and later in

13224-469: Was received: his biographer and Noa Noa collaborator, the Symbolist poet Charles Morice  [ fr ] , contended (1920) that the work was "literally expelled" from the exhibition, while Vollard said (1937) that the work was admitted only when Chaplet threatened to withdraw all his own work. In any case, Gauguin took the opportunity to increase his public exposure by writing an outraged letter on

13340-489: Was the 22-year-old daughter of André Chazal, an engraver, and Flora Tristan , an author and activist in early socialist movements. Their union ended when André assaulted his wife Flora and was sentenced to prison for attempted murder. Paul Gauguin's maternal grandmother, Flora Tristan, was the illegitimate daughter of Thérèse Laisnay and Don Mariano de Tristan Moscoso. Details of Thérèse's family background are not known; Don Mariano came from an aristocratic Spanish family from

13456-422: Was to spend the next six years living, for the most part, an apparently comfortable life as an artist- colon near, or at times in, Papeete. During this time he was able to support himself with an increasingly steady stream of sales and the support of friends and well-wishers, though there was a period of time 1898–1899 when he felt compelled to take a desk job in Papeete, of which there is not much record. He built

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