Until now Tahiti had been depicted by members of the Royal Academy, official recording-artists and by kitsch painters, often by good or even brilliant artists, never by a genius. Just as Delacroix and Fromentin concentrated on the women of Algiers and the horsemen of Sahel, Gauguin devoted himself to the South Sea Islands.

A financier who had abandoned the Stock Exchange for painting and who had forsaken family life for a bohemian existence, Gauguin, at the age of forty-two, decided to start a new life. He therefore set out for the South Sea Islands with the idea of shaking-off civilization, of renewing himself in the purity of nature, of living the same life as primitive people or, in his own words; "with no other care in the world than to express, as would a child, the impressions of my mind, using only the medium of primitive art; the only correct, the only true medium".

Having obtained some vague kind of official recognition, he finally arrived in Papeete in June 1891. He spent two years in Tahiti, mostly Mataiea, beside the sea, "in a house with a tall roof of pandanus leaves which he shared with a quantity of lizards". He was plagued with ill-health and suffered from a continual lack of funds, but the kindness of the "vahine", the mildness of the climate, the encouragements of a close friend and above all the stimulation of the task he had set himself all helped him to continue his work. When he was repatriated two years later, he left the island with more than fifty good canvases rolled-up in his baggage, a quantity of drawings and sketches and a few carvings. With him were the "Portrait of Miss Bambridge", "I raro oviri" and the celebrated "Je vous salue Marie".

At the Durand Ruel gallery in Paris, he exhibited a collection, which today would be considered spectacular, but the public of his day understood none of it. This incomprehension was headed by the critics who wrote: "should you wish to divert your children, then take them to the Gauguin exhibition. They will enjoy the brightly-colored representations of women and "fourhanded animals" stretched out on billiard-cloth, all rejoicing in their vulgarity".

Despite this reverse, Gauguin, in love with Tahiti and more revolted than ever by the superficial life of civilization, decided to leave again for Oceania. This he did in 1895, never to return.

He first settled in Punaauia, an hour's drive from Papeete. Although he was unable to find that creative inspiration which he had during his first stay and in spite of his poor health, he carried on painting and deriving a certain pleasure from it whilst enjoying life. He had a house built on a plot of land belonging to him. But even though the prices of his paintings were ridiculously low, 150 to 200 francs per canvas! He did not succeed in selling his pictures. He began to vomit blood and became desperate, believing himself to be approaching the end of his days. Before fading out, he painted a big picture, which was supposed to be a symbolic will, based on the theme of destiny: "where did we come from?" "Who are we?" "Where are we going to?" (1899). It is now hanging in Boston Museum. Once this task had been accomplished, he decided to bring his life to an end and attempted to commit suicide by swallowing a dose of arsenic, but survived.

For a while he had no artistic hopes and went to Papeete to have his wounds dealt with. He was offered a little job in town at 6 francs a day by the Public Works. He also had another income, which was journalism and wrote satirical and anti-colonial articles known was "Wasps and Smiling" (les Guêpes et le Sourire).

Vollard who was a Parisian art dealer offered him a reasonable monthly income in exchange for a few canvases and therefore, no longer having any financial problems, he set out for the Marquesas where he was to spend the rest of his life. He lived in semi-solitude and hardly ever came out of his cabin, isolated in the middle of nature and was divided between his ever increasing claims and his painting.

Within a few months, he completed some twenty paintings; the most beautiful ones were "And their golden bodies" (1901), which is hanging at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, "Horsemen on the beach" (1903) and "the Call" (1902). The style is one evolved by the artist in the last stages of his painting; it is very close to pure painting, rhythm and color being far more important than subject matter.

He painted his "Self-Portrait" (1903) around about this period. He also produced several sculptures, which were inspired by local mythology and did some highly evocative woodcarvings.

Let us not say anymore about Gauguin; a "dossier" has been compiled on him in this series. The reader may refer to it.