Paul Gauguin (1848 –1903) was born in Paris, France. He was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. His family left to Peru in 1851, motivated by the political climate of the period. Gauguin’s father died on the voyage, leaving behind Gauguin, his sister and his mother. The three lived with Gauguin’s uncle and his family for four years in Lima, Peru. The imagery of Peru would later influence Gauguin in his art. Gauguin had been interested in art since his childhood. He used to paint during his free times. He also purchased work by emerging artists and visited galleries frequently. The Synthetist style of modern art was as a result of his bold experimentation with coloring, and his expression of the inherent meaning of his subjects also paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. Gauguin painted in the Cloisonnism style and was also an influential proponent of woodcuts and wood engraving as art forms.
Gauguin and his family returned to France when he was just seven years old. At seventeen, he signed on as a pilot's assistant, and three years later, joined the navy where he stayed until 1871. Gauguin later became friends with artist Camille Pissarro, who introduced him to various other artists. As the quality of his work improved, he rented a studio and showed paintings in Impressionist exhibitions. Over two summer vacations, Gauguin painted with Paul Cézanne and Pissarro. He experimented with processes such as offset printing and with various colored papers, inks, to explore different emotional and artistic effects.