1848 — 1903

Nationality: France

Paul Gauguin was a French Post-Impressionist painter. A key figure of Synthetism and associated with the Nabis, he favored bold, flat color areas, firm contours, and symbolist compositions. His stays in Brittany and later in Tahiti and the Marquesas fed a primitivist imagination and a strong will to break from academic norms. His work—spiritually charged and chromatically daring—had a lasting impact on modern art.