Podcast Summary: “Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin” – All Of It with Alison Stewart

Date: August 16, 2025
Guest: Sue Prideaux, author of Wild: A Life of Paul Gauguin

Episode Overview

This episode of All Of It dives into the enigmatic and controversial life of 19th-century French artist Paul Gauguin, as explored in Sue Prideaux's biography, Wild: A Life of Paul Gauguin. The conversation unpacks Gauguin's turbulent personal history, the controversies surrounding his legacy, his creative journey and philosophies, and his lasting impact on art and culture. The episode grapples openly with debates about Gauguin’s morality and his actions in Polynesia, while investigating the complexity and nuances behind both the man and his art.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why Write about Paul Gauguin?

[01:57]

• Sue Prideaux shares her initial motivation: a reaction to heated debates at a 2019 Gauguin exhibition and accusations that Gauguin should be “cancelled”.

  • “I really can’t get away with the idea of loving Gauguin’s art and hating the man. So I thought, well, I’d better investigate and...my investigations really became the book.” – Sue Prideaux [02:50]

• Prideaux highlights the abundance of new sources:

  • Recently discovered 213-page manuscript by Gauguin.
  • A family memoir by Gauguin’s son (in Norwegian).
  • Unpublished family papers from descendants.
  • The latest catalogue raisonné of Gauguin’s paintings.

2. Confronting Gauguin’s Controversies

[03:12 – 08:55]

• On accusations surrounding Gauguin’s relationships with minors in Polynesia:

  • Sue contextualizes the age of consent in 19th-century France and its colonies, not to exonerate, but to provide historical context.
  • Notable Quote:
    “It’s disgusting and it’s horrible, but actually within the context of the time, Gauguin was doing nothing illegal or indeed at all unusual.” – Sue Prideaux [04:40]

• DNA analysis has debunked the widely believed myth that Gauguin died of syphilis.

• Prideaux underscores Gauguin’s own words via the newly discovered manuscript, Avant et Après (“Before and After”), a major addition to Gauguin studies.

3. Formative Years: From Peru to France

[09:20 – 19:50]

• Gauguin’s parents, both radical Republican journalists, fled France for Peru because of political exile; his father died en route, so Gauguin and his mother arrived to a grand family estate in Lima.

• The Peruvian childhood shaped his worldview and art:

  • “He adored it. He writes about it. It’s like a sort of magical real Eden...all his art looks back to those days.” – Sue Prideaux [10:30]

• Return to France was traumatic: he didn’t speak French; was bullied for being “dark and swarthy”.

  • “When he got into fights, he’d put up his fist and he’d say, I am a walton from Peru.” – Sue Prideaux [12:34]

4. Influence of Flora Tristan and Family Trauma

[13:21 – 15:39]

• Gauguin’s grandmother, Flora Tristan, was a famed feminist activist and proto-socialist:
  • Dressed as a man to witness Parliament; admired by Marx.
• Flora’s marital abuse/court case shaped family independence.
• Her books were a touchstone for Gauguin throughout his life.

5. Childhood Objects: Pre-Columbian Pottery

[15:39 – 18:29]

• The “Moche pots” Flora and Eileen collected in Peru left a visual imprint on Gauguin’s subconscious, later surfacing in the ceramics he created.
  • “They almost look like sort of props from a Hammer horror movie, some of them.” – Sue Prideaux [16:41]
• These pots later influenced Picasso’s ceramics.

6. Early Adulthood: Troubled Student to Stockbroker

[19:50 – 25:42]

• Gauguin’s Parisian adolescence: alienated, rebellious, but benefited from a classical education.
• Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?, his most famous painting, originated from a school creed.
• Several stints at sea and a disastrous attempt at a “normal life”.
• Rapid rise as a self-taught artist after copying Impressionists; mentored by Pissarro.

“He literally hadn’t picked up a paintbrush till then...I really can’t think of many other painters who started painting at 25 years old.” – Sue Prideaux [24:49]

7. Marriage and Family: Mette Gad

[26:39 – 36:19]

• Met and married Danish woman Mette Gad in a whirlwind romance; five children, but career instability and the 1882 market crash drove them apart.

“He wrote rather smugly that she was everything he could possibly want for or need. And they had five children in quick succession.” – Sue Prideaux [27:10]

• Gauguin failed in business in Denmark. Cultural disconnect; in-laws nicknamed him “the missing link”.
• Mette eventually sold his paintings for income; Gauguin resented her choices but the marriage, despite distance and hardship, never formally dissolved.

8. Pivot to Art: Theo and Vincent van Gogh

[36:19 – 48:02]

• After stints in Panama/Martinique, Gauguin’s post-Impressionist innovations catch the Van Gogh brothers’ attention.
  • Theo van Gogh acts as his agent.
  • Vincent’s self-portrait invitation:
    “What an amazing way to extend an invitation.” – Sue Prideaux [38:12]
• The infamous “Yellow House” period: intense, claustrophobic, creative partnership with Vincent leads to psychological crisis.
  • Gauguin’s perspective:
    “Vincent was very excited that Gauguin was going to come and live with him. And that's when he paints his famous sunflower paintings...like a huge welcoming bouquet.” – Sue Prideaux [39:15]
• After the ear-cutting incident, Gauguin flees; the friendship endures emotionally but not physically.
  • “There was much affection.” – Sue Prideaux [47:54]

9. Polynesia: What Gauguin Found and Created

[48:02 – 63:02]

• Gauguin arrives in Tahiti (1891): spectacle in cowboy boots and Stetson.

• Early works misunderstood by colonials; locals eventually accept him (“the man who Makes Men”).

• Depicts colonial oppression, missionary brutality, and indigenous life authentically.

  • “He wanted to live with the locals as a local...eventually it worked and he became known as the man who Makes Men.” – Sue Prideaux [55:18]

• Rejection in Paris for his Polyensian religious paintings, notably “Hail Mary.”

• His proto-ethnographic work, Noa Noa, aimed to introduce Polynesian culture to the West.

“People were in love with Impressionism, you know...It was scandalous to show the holy family with brown skin.” – Sue Prideaux [56:03]

10. Contested Legacy: Colonialism, Cultural Appropriation, and Representation

[59:55 – 63:02]

• Notable Exchange:

  • Alison: “We’re watching it through his male gaze, his male white gaze, right?”
  • Prideaux: “He doesn’t romanticize. It’s not tourist art. He doesn’t exoticize. He’s painting what’s in front of him...He Shows a colony in transition...real people, not propaganda.” [60:53]

• Gauguin’s representation stands in stark contrast to earlier exoticizing artists like Delacroix and Ingres.

11. Political Activism and Final Years

[63:04 – 73:52]

• Brutal beating in Brittany left him disabled.
• In Tahiti and later Hiva Oa, became an opponent of colonial corruption and missionary oppression.
• Journalism exposed local injustices, earning love from Polynesians; rivalry with Catholic bishop.
• Used minor French laws to help locals resist forced cultural erasure in schools.
  • “Gauguin became more popular than ever...a defender of native vices, a subverter of the rule of law and a dangerous anarchist.” – Governor’s report [71:23]
• Gauguin died in 1903, possibly from heart failure rather than suicide.
  • Buried by the church, called an “enemy of God and everything that is decent.” [72:16]

12. Gauguin’s Philosophy: The Meaning of Authenticity

[73:52 – 75:50]

• Prideaux on authenticity:
  • “He was dedicated to his art, his loves, his children. ... Authentic poetic is a word he used very often. He hated pretense, hypocrisy. ... history and art and life are not there to be comforting or to be condemned. They’re there to be understood.” [74:00–75:40]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s disgusting and it’s horrible, but ... within the context of the time, Gauguin was doing nothing illegal or indeed at all unusual.” – Sue Prideaux [04:40]
• “He adored it. He writes about it. It’s like a sort of magical real Eden ...” – Sue Prideaux [10:30]
• “He literally hadn’t picked up a paintbrush till then...I can’t think of many other painters who started painting at 25 years old.” – Sue Prideaux [24:49]
• “There was much affection.” – On Van Gogh–Gauguin post-Arles correspondence [47:54]
• “He Shows a colony in transition...real people, not propaganda.” – Sue Prideaux [61:00]
• “A defender of native vices, a subverter of the rule of law and a dangerous anarchist.” – Governor’s report about Gauguin [71:23]
• “History and art and life are not there to be comforting or to be condemned. They’re there to be understood.” – Sue Prideaux [75:43]

Timestamps for Significant Segments

• 01:57: Why Sue Prideaux chose Gauguin as her subject
• 03:36: Facing controversy: pedophilia and syphilis accusations
• 09:20 – 11:35: Gauguin’s family and the political context of his birth
• 13:21 - 15:39: Influence of Flora Tristan (grandmother) and family history
• 19:50 – 26:39: Education, artistic awakening, rise as a painter
• 26:58 – 36:19: Marriage and separation from Mette Gad
• 36:19 – 48:02: Relationship with Theo and Vincent Van Gogh; Arles period
• 48:02: Gauguin’s move to Tahiti, early encounters and the local context
• 56:03: Reception of Tahiti paintings in Europe
• 59:55 – 63:02: Gauguin, colonialism, and questions of authenticity
• 66:25 – 73:52: Political activism and defense of Polynesian rights
• 73:56–75:50: Gauguin’s understanding of authenticity

Tone & Language

• The conversation is candid, unflinching, and demonstrates deep research. Prideaux is direct yet empathetic, navigating the moral quagmires of Gauguin’s life without flinching or whitewashing, while Alison Stewart’s hosting provides structure, curiosity, and reflection.

Overall Takeaway

This episode offers a nuanced exploration of Paul Gauguin—artistic innovator, cultural transgressor, flawed human. Through Sue Prideaux’s research and lively storytelling, listeners are encouraged to see Gauguin in his full complexity, neither vilified nor venerated, but as a provocateur who challenged norms, suffered, and burned for authenticity in life and art. The biography and the discussion invite listeners to grapple with the moral, cultural, and historical challenges Gauguin’s life presents, advocating for understanding rather than easy condemnation or celebration.