BBC Arts - BBC Arts - The Pursuit of Paradise: Eight paintings tracing Paul Gauguin's quest for the exotic in Tahiti

Gauguin in Tahiti: Paradise Lost (2019)

Gauguin: Voyage To Tahiti

Paul Gauguin didn’t grow up dreaming about Tahiti. In his 30s, he had a stable job in Paris, a wife, five children, a predictable life. Then the stock market crashed in 1882. He lost his income - and instead of rebuilding it, he chose painting. Not part-time. Fully. He left his family. Lived in poverty. At one point, he shared a house in Arles with Vincent van Gogh - a friendship that ended in tension and that infamous breakdown. But Gauguin wanted something else. He sailed to Tahiti in 1891, ch