Gorgeously illustrated with 70 colour images You wish to teach me what is within myself: learn first what is within you . . . I believe life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one''s will. 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 how he struggled to sustain his artistry - from a career as a stockbroker in Paris to a door-to-door salesman in Copenhagen, a canal digger in Panama City to a journalist exposing the injustices of French colonial rule in Tahiti. In Wild Thing , the award-winning biographer Sue Prideaux reexamines the adventurous and complicated life of the artist. She illuminates the people, places and ideas that shaped his vision - from his eccentric upbringing in Peru and rebellious youth in France, to the galvanising energy of the Paris art scene and meeting Mette - the woman who he would marry, to the formative encounters with Vincent Van Gogh and August Strindberg and the ceaseless draw of French Polynesia. Prideaux draws from a wealth of new material and access to the artist''s family to conjure Gauguin''s visual exuberance, his creative epiphanies, his fierce words and his flaws with acuity and sensitivity. This myth-busting work challenges us to see Gauguin anew.

Vorwort
A myth-busting and subtle re-examination of the trailblazing and controversial artist Paul Gauguin, by the prize-winning author of I Am Dynamite!

Autorentext

Sue Prideaux's first biography Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (2005) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Strindberg: A Life (2012) won the Duff Cooper Prize, and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche (2018) was awarded the Hawthornden Prize, longlisted for the Cundhill History Prize and Rathbones Folio Prize, shortlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Non-Fiction Crown and was The Times Biography of the Year.

Klappentext

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.
Gorgeously illustrated with 70 full-colour images
''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.

Zusammenfassung
A vital re-examination of the trailblazing and controversial artist Paul Gauguin, by the prize-winning author of I Am Dynamite!