In Paris, on 7 June 1848, the year of revolutionary upheavals throughout Europe, Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was born. Unappreciated until after his death. Gauguin as an important figure in the Symbolism movement, paved the way for Primitivism.
Paul Gauguin is often celebrated for his innovative use of color, composition, and symbolism. However, his legacy is fraught with deep ethical and artistic problems, particularly in relation to his use of "primitivism"—a term that encapsulates the romanticized and often exploitative depiction of non-European cultures.
Gauguin’s primitivism is not only a problematic aesthetic but also a symptom of the broader colonial ideologies of his time. This article critiques Gauguin’s primitivist approach, examining its historical context, its inherent contradictions, and the ethical concerns surrounding his work and personal life.
A Guide to Primitivism by Gauguin
Gauguin's paintings received dismissive reviews
Gauguin's first steps into the art world were in art dealing. In 1873, around the time Gauguin was working as an art dealer, Gauguin began painting in his free time. His Parisian life centered on the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Nearby were the cafés frequented by the Impressionists.
Gauguin also visited galleries frequently and purchased work from emerging artists. 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. Gauguin showed paintings in Impressionist exhibitions held in 1881 and 1882.
Gauguin's paintings received dismissive reviews, although several of them, such as The Market Gardens of Vaugirard, are now highly regarded.
The following two summers, he painted with Pissarro and occasionally Paul Cézanne. In 1884, Gauguin moved to Copenhagen, bringing with him his art collection, which subsequently remained in Copenhagen, Gauguin returned to Paris in June 1885. During this first year, Gauguin produced very little art.
Gauguin was inspired by book illustrations
Gauguin exhibited 19 paintings and a wood relief at the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition in May 1886. Gauguin spent the summer of 1886 in the artists' colony of Pont-Aven in Brittany Where Gauguin was inspired by the British illustrator Randolph Caldecott (22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886).
Caldecott exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations and greatly influenced the illustration of children's books during the nineteenth century.
The drawings of the English illustrator Randolph Caldecott inspired Gauguin who was anxious to free himself from conservatism. These sketches were later worked up into paintings back in Gauguin's Paris studio. The most important of these is "Four Breton Women", which declared a marked departure from his earlier Impressionist style.
Gauguin started incorporating features of caricature and the naïve style of Caldecott's illustration in his works. Gauguin sought the primitive art of Africa and Asia, it seemed to him full of mystic symbolism and vigor.
Gauguin was inspired by Cloisonnism, a style that favors painting with flat areas of color and bold outlines, and boldly eliminated subtle gradations of color. Gauguin's works slowly evolved towards Synthetism in which neither form nor color predominates but each has an equal role.
Tahiti... Gauguin's next artistic destination
By 1890, Gauguin decided to make Tahiti his next artistic destination. To escape European civilization and "everything that is artificial and conventional", Gauguin set sail for Tahiti on 1 April 1891. In Papeete, the capital of the colony influenced by the French and European culture, Gauguin failed to find his primitive idyll.
After three months, Gauguin decided to install himself in a native-style bamboo hut studio in Mataiea, Papeari, where he executed the most precious paintings depicting Tahitian life. Many of his finest paintings date from this period.
In August 1893, Gauguin returned to France, where he continued to execute paintings on Tahitian subjects. To return to Tahiti, Gauguin began accepting charity from friends. In June 1895 Eugène Carrière arranged a cheap passage back to Tahiti, and Gauguin never saw Europe again.
Gauguin's travelogue first published in 1901, titled Noa Noa, describes Gauguin's primitive art and life experiences in Tahiti.
In Noa Noa Gauguin revealed that he had at this time taken a 13-year-old girl called Tehura as a native wife or vahine (the Tahitian word for "woman"), who was pregnant by him by the end of summer 1892. Gauguin died suddenly on the morning of 8 May 1903.
Gauguin paintings are rarely offered for sale, their prices reaching tens of millions of US dollars. Gauguin's masterpiece "1892 Nafea Faa Ipoipo" (When Will You Marry?) became the world's third-most expensive artwork when sold privately for US$210 million in September 2014.
When Will You Marry?... Primitive painting by Paul Gauguin.
"When Will You Marry?" or "Nafea faa ipoipo?" is an oil painting from 1892 by the French Primitive artist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin traveled to Tahiti for the first time in 1891.
Gauguin's journey was to find his primitive art inspiration and to find an Edenic paradise. Though European colonization wiped out "Primitive" Tahitian culture, Gauguin managed to find a space for his primitive desires.
Gauguin portrayed the Tahitian primitive natives as living only to sing and to make love. Gauguin painted many pictures of native women one of which was the rear figure in "When Will You Marry?".
Gauguin was fascinated by the Tahitian language and inscribed at the bottom right of the painting "NAFEA Faa ipoipo" (When will you marry).
The white tiare flower behind the main figure's left ear indicates she is seeking a husband. The details depicted emphasize the primitive life of the figures. The grass, the trees, and the sky occupy a wide space and somehow weaken the composition.
A traditionally dressed young woman has settled on the threshold between the front and middle ground. The main figures' interaction with the secondary subjects was not perfect. Gauguin expressed the painting using moderately liberated brushwork, vivid palette colors, and simplified work with light.
When Gauguin returned to France, his 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition achieved limited success. Gauguin placed the "When You Will Marry?" painting on consignment at the exhibition at a price of 1,500 francs, the highest price he assigned for a painting, but had no takers. In 1917, Staechelin eventually purchased it at the Maison Moos gallery in Geneva.
In February 2015, it was sold privately by the family of Rudolf Staechelin to Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, for close to US$210 million (£155 million).
The Myth of the Primitive: A Colonial Construct
Gauguin’s primitivism relied on the deeply flawed European notion of the "noble savage"—a romanticized fantasy that depicted indigenous cultures as pure, untainted by modern civilization, and spiritually superior. This idea, rooted in colonial discourse, served to justify European dominance by portraying non-Western societies as simple and static, rather than complex and evolving.
His relocation to Tahiti in 1891 was driven by his desire to escape the industrialized West and immerse himself in what he imagined to be an Edenic paradise. However, this vision was not based on reality but on an Orientalist fantasy. By the time Gauguin arrived, Tahiti had already been extensively colonized by the French, with its culture irrevocably altered by European influence. The artist willfully ignored these realities, instead creating works that depicted an untouched, mythical world. His paintings, such as Manao Tupapau (1892) and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897), erase colonial violence and present Tahitian women as passive, eroticized figures existing solely for European consumption.
Primitivism and the Appropriation of Indigenous Aesthetics
While Gauguin claimed to reject European artistic traditions, his so-called "primitivism" was still constructed through a Western lens. His stylistic choices—bold colors, flattened forms, and symbolic motifs—were inspired by Tahitian culture but heavily filtered through his own Eurocentric interpretations. Instead of genuinely engaging with indigenous art forms or acknowledging their historical significance, Gauguin appropriated them to serve his personal aesthetic goals.
Moreover, his work exoticizes and dehumanizes Tahitian people. His portrayal of Tahitian women in works like Two Tahitian Women (1899) follows the same tradition as colonial postcards, where indigenous women were objectified and eroticized for a European audience. His idealized depictions strip his subjects of individuality and agency, reducing them to mere symbols of an imagined primitive utopia.
The Ethical Scandals: Gauguin’s Personal Exploitation of Indigenous Women
Beyond his artistic choices, Gauguin’s personal life raises severe ethical concerns. Historical records show that he engaged in exploitative relationships with underage Tahitian girls, some as young as thirteen. He took multiple child brides, a practice enabled by the colonial structures that allowed European men to exploit indigenous women with impunity.
His writings further reveal a disturbing attitude towards his subjects. In his journals, he describes Tahitian women in terms that emphasize their supposed submission and sexual availability. This echoes the broader colonial discourse that justified the exploitation of indigenous peoples under the guise of Western superiority and paternalism.
Gauguin’s Legacy: A Call for Reassessment
For too long, art history has celebrated Gauguin as an innovator while downplaying the problematic aspects of his work and life. Contemporary scholars and critics increasingly call for a reevaluation of his legacy, acknowledging the ethical concerns that accompany his artistic achievements.
His primitivism is not simply an aesthetic movement but a reflection of the exploitative and racist ideologies of his time. By romanticizing and distorting indigenous cultures, Gauguin perpetuated harmful stereotypes that still shape Western perceptions of non-European societies today. In reassessing his work, we must acknowledge both his artistic contributions and the ethical failings that complicate his legacy.
Conclusion: Moving Beyond Primitivism
The continued admiration of Gauguin raises important questions about how we engage with artists whose work is entwined with colonial and exploitative histories. While his contributions to modern art are undeniable, they cannot be divorced from the problematic contexts in which they were created. Rather than glorifying primitivism, we must critically examine its implications and recognize the voices of the cultures that artists like Gauguin appropriated and misrepresented.
By shifting our focus towards indigenous perspectives and decolonizing art history, we can move beyond the myth of the "primitive" and towards a more ethical and inclusive understanding of artistic expression.
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