A
TIMES,
DAILY TELEGRAPH, SPECTATOR, ECONOMIST,
NEW STATESMAN AND
TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025
WINNER OF THE POL ROGER DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024
WINNER OF THE FRANCO-BRITISH SOCIETY LITERARY AWARD 2024
A vital re-examination of the trailblazing and controversial artist Paul Gauguin - and the first full biography in over thirty years - written by the award-winning author of
I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche.
'Scintillating.'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'Immaculate.'
NEW STATESMAN
'Phenomenal.'
PROSPECT
'A heroic rehabilitation.'
THE TIMES
Paul Gauguin is chiefly known as the giant of post-Impressionist painting whose bold colours and compositions rocked the Western art world. It is less well known that he was a stockbroker in Paris and that after the 1882 financial crash he struggled to sustain his artistry, and worked as a tarpaulin salesman in Copenhagen, a canal digger in Panama City, and a journalist exposing the injustices of French colonial rule in Tahiti.
In
Wild Thing, the award-winning biographer Sue Prideaux re-examines the adventurous and complicated life of the artist. She illuminates the people, places and ideas that shaped his vision: his privileged upbringing in Peru and rebellious youth in France; the galvanising energy of the Paris art scene; meeting Mette, the woman who he would marry; formative encounters with Vincent van Gogh and August Strindberg; and the ceaseless draw of French Polynesia.
Prideaux conjures Gauguin's visual exuberance, his creative epiphanies, his fierce words and his flaws with acuity and sensitivity. Drawing from a wealth of new material and access to the artist's family, this myth-busting work invites us to see Gauguin anew.
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Information
Subtopic
Artist BiographiesIndex
HistoryTable of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- 1: Revolutionary Road
- 2: ‘I am a savage from Peru’
- 3: The Outsider
- 4: Becoming
- 5: Impressionism and Bourgeois Bliss
- 6: Lost
- 7: Evolution of a Dream
- 8: ‘I’ve never painted so clearly’
- 9: Vincent. ‘My God, what a day!!’
- 10: The March of Science
- 11: A Throw of the Dice
- 12: Poisoned Paradise
- 13: Tehamana
- 14: ‘I hate nullity, the halfway’
- 15: Pent Up in Paris
- 16: Return to Tahiti
- 17: Reinventions
- 18: Koké
- 19: The Barefoot Lawyer
- Acknowledgements
- Select Bibliography
- Notes
- Permissions Credits
- Index
- About the Author
- By the Same author
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Artist Biographies. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.