Meet The Masters __________________________________________________________________________ Thomas Gainsborough & Paul Gauguin

Thomas Gainsborough 1727 – 1788 Self Portraits

Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, England and spent most of his life living in England.

Gainsborough is considered mainly a landscape and portrait artist.

Gainsborough's enthusiasm for landscapes is shown in the way he merged figures of the portraits with the scenes behind them.

He was noted for the speed with which he applied paint, and he worked more from observations of nature (and of human nature) than from application of formal academic rules.

Paul Gauguin 1848 - 1903

Gauguin was born in Paris Gauguin was born in Paris. He lived in Lima Peru as a small child, then moved back to France at 7yrs old. He left Paris when he was 35 for French Polynesia.

At first, painting was only a hobby for Gauguin At first, painting was only a hobby for Gauguin. He was a stockbroker who collected modern art on the side. As his love and knowledge of art grew, so did his dissatisfaction with Western life and society. When he was 35 he left his family, his home, and his business to go live on an island in the South Seas and become a painter.

For the rest of his life he experienced suffering, poverty, and often hunger. The subjects for his paintings were the people and objects that he saw on the islands. Gauguin used bold bright colors to express his ideas. Gauguin felt that you should not be afraid to use color. As he said, "How does that tree look to you? Green? All right, then use green, the greenest of your pallet. And that shadow, a little bluish? Don't be afraid. Paint it as blue as you can."

by Thomas Gainsborough Compare The Poor Fisherman by Paul Gauguin Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough