Mary’s Landscape Art Info

Gauguin took his oil painting discovery even further in Tahiti, which also did not fulfill his dream of finding the “noble savage” – as Europeans had already turned the island into an extension of Europe. But he was able to use the contrast between what he had hoped for and what he found. He often placed a primitive scene in the foreground and images of civilized life in the background, and eliminated perspective and shading so the background encroached on the foreground.

Gauguin’s manipulation of traditional perspective and his expressive use of color had a major influence on the late -19^th- and early -20^th-century art movements especially Fauvism and Expressionism. In 1901, Picasso saw several Gauguin paintings at a friend’s home, and they inspired him to launch into his Blue Period. It is no wonder that he is among the founders of modern art.