Paul Gauguin (Paris, France, 1848–Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, 1903) was a leading figure of Post-Impressionism, celebrated for his radical experiments with color, simplified form, and symbolic imagery. Working across painting, printmaking, ceramics, and sculpture, Gauguin rejected naturalistic representation in favor of heightened color, flattened space, and compositions shaped by memory, emotion, and imagination. He initially pursued a career as a stockbroker and began painting as an amateur through his engagement with Impressionism. After the financial downturn of the 1880s, he abandoned commerce to devote himself fully to art, although he struggled throughout much of his life to achieve financial stability. Seeking distance from the industrialized modern city, Gauguin traveled repeatedly to Brittany, where he depicted the region’s rural communities, religious traditions, and dramatic landscape. During a subsequent stay in Martinique, he began to develop the non-naturalistic palette and increasingly expressive approach that would become central to his mature work.