Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), who worked at the Paris stock exchange, lived a middle-class life with a wife and five children. He dedicated himself to painting in 1882, but without financial success. Leaving his family with his parents-in-law in Denmark, he began to travel. After his stay in Arles, where he became friends with Vincent van Gogh, he spent long periods of time in Polynesia. His paintings of the native people and landscapes made him famous to future generations, and influenced the Fauvists of the twentieth century.
