Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
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 '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.
Author: Sue Prideaux
Format: Paperback, 432 pages, 129mm x 198mm
Published: 2025, Faber & Faber, United Kingdom
Genre: Biography: The Arts
Description
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 '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.
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin