Paul Gauguin on screen (2010)
By John A. Walker, the author of Art & Artists on screen.
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) achieved fame because of the opulent colours, decorative beauty and enigmatic symbolism of his post-impressionist canvases and because of his lurid biography— his late start as a painter, his financial and marital problems, his egotistical and virile personality, and his supposed rejection of European civilisation in favour of the exotic, “primitive” society of Oceania. Today, the name “Gauguin” conjures up a whole cluster of legends and myths, many of which the artist himself originated or endorsed.
Paul Gauguin is also famous for his friendship with Vincent van Gogh, a relationship that ended disastrously. (Their 1888 encounter in Arles was depicted in Lust for Life (1956), a van Gogh biopic in which Gauguin was played by Hollywood’s all purpose foreigner Anthony Quinn.) Inevitably, the artist’s career has fascinated novelists, film and television directors and film stars. Three films will be considered: The moon and Sixpence (1942), The wolf at the door (1986), and Paradise found (2003).
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