Intelligence Squared

Episode: Re-examining the Life of Paul Gauguin, with Sue Prideaux

Host: Hannah Kaye
Guest: Sue Prideaux, Biographer
Date: January 13, 2025

Overview

This episode features biographer Sue Prideaux discussing her new book, Wild - A Life of Paul Gauguin, shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. The conversation, led by Hannah Kaye, explores Gauguin's turbulent life, his evolving reputation amidst changing social values, new evidence altering perceptions of his conduct and art, and how context reframes his legacy. Prideaux’s rigorous research and fortuitous access to new documentation offer a nuanced reassessment challenging prevailing views of Gauguin as merely a problematic colonialist artist.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gauguin’s Contemporary Reputation and “Cancellation” Debate

• The episode opens by acknowledging that Gauguin is currently seen as a highly controversial figure due to his relationships in Tahiti and colonial dynamics.
  • Quote:
    "Is it time to stop looking at Gauguin altogether?" – Exhibit wall text, National Gallery, 2019 [03:59]
  • The hosts refer to media likening Gauguin to a "19th-century Harvey Weinstein," showing how deeply the reevaluation runs.[04:45]

2. Reassessing the Historical Context of Gauguin’s Behavior

• Age of Consent Context:
  Prideaux stresses that Gauguin’s relationships with young women, while disturbing by today’s standards, were not considered illegal or unusual for the period – the age of consent in France and its colonies was 13.
  • Quote:
    "Gauguin was doing nothing illegal, but more importantly, nothing unusual within the context of the time." – Sue Prideaux [07:51]
• Syphilis Myth Dispelled:
  Scientific analysis of Gauguin’s teeth shows he was highly unlikely to have had syphilis, contradicting decades of rumor.[08:17]

3. New Sources Transforming Gauguin Scholarship

• The late discovery and public access to Gauguin’s illustrated manuscript, Avant et Après, and completion of his catalogue raisonné brought a wave of fresh evidence.
  • "I was already committed to signing the book because I thought, these are such huge things. We’ve got to reassess his life." – Sue Prideaux [09:23]
• Access to previously unknown family papers, memoirs, and writings in Norwegian and Danish (languages Prideaux speaks) further enriched her portrait of Gauguin.[10:33]

4. Gauguin’s Position in Art History and His Artistic Innovations

• Began as an Impressionist, but after financial ruin, found his voice in Brittany and was inspired by Japanese prints' disregard for Western perspective conventions.
  • "What he wanted to convey was emotion in his paintings and the inner life rather than the reality of what you see." – Sue Prideaux [13:18]
• Pushed painting towards symbolism and emotional truth, challenging both scientific color theory and realism.[13:50]

5. The Search for Arcadia: Gauguin’s Exoticism and Early Life

• Childhood in Peru left an indelible longing for paradise and a “wild thing” identity that influenced his later life and work.[14:43]
  • Quote:
    "I’m a wild thing from Peru, I’m not going to fit into all this nonsense." – Gauguin, as described by Prideaux [16:41]

6. The Van Gogh Episode and Artistic Camaraderie

• Details of Gauguin’s influential yet tumultuous collaboration with Van Gogh in Arles, including the famous Sunflowers, the incident of Van Gogh’s ear, and the aftermath.
  • Memorable anecdote:
    Gauguin planting sunflowers in Tahiti ten years later as a tribute:
    "He writes: 'in memory of my gentle friend Vincent.'” [22:59]

7. Colonialism, the Exposition Universelle, and French Attitudes

• Discussion of the 1889 Exposition Universelle, the ideology behind France’s colonial “mission civilisatrice,” and its destructive impact on Polynesian culture compared to British colonial approaches.
  • "The French destroyed, really. [...] The French had really destroyed all the artifacts, all the art." – Sue Prideaux [24:45]
• Contrasting real Tahiti on Gauguin’s arrival – a colonially oppressed and culturally devastated land – with European romantic fantasies.[28:52]

8. Sexual Mores and Indigenous Society in Tahiti

• Detailed context about polyandrous Tahitian society, gender roles, and pre-colonial sexual norms.
  • "In Polynesian society, men and women were very divided. Each had their own responsibilities. Women, interestingly enough, didn't have souls... But there was human sacrifice up to 40 years before Gauguin arrived." – Sue Prideaux [34:03]
• Gauguin’s initial liaisons: Titi, a city prostitute, and Tehamana, a 15-year-old “wife” by local custom; their relationships reflected local arrangements, with no coercion and mutual choice.[36:33–39:22]
  • "She was the most wonderful... She really suited an artist because she loved to... She had a very still quality about her. She was a thoughtful, she was an intellectual girl, really... And she taught him all the Polynesian legends." – Sue Prideaux [38:12]
• Compares his depictions of brown-skinned women to the radicalism of Manet’s Olympia, foregrounding non-white nudes in Western art.[41:57]

9. Later Life, Opposition to Colonial Authorities, and Advocacy

• Gauguin’s growing identification with, and defense of, Polynesians:
  • Exposed French corruption, championed local rights, and facilitated the release of island children from deracinating boarding schools.
    • "Gauguin, good man, discovered a minor French bylaw that said children only had to go to school... within 4km of their home. So you can imagine mass relocation ensued and go down one lap, huh? Terrific." [47:57]

10. Personal Life and Final Years

• Gauguin was nursed until death by his final wife, Pahura, who remembered him fondly as “un coquin”—a rascal—and not with bitterness.[48:56]
• Through his life, respected strong, independent women:
  • "He liked women, you know. Yeah, he liked strong women." – Sue Prideaux [51:32]
  • His grandmother, Flora Tristan, was a pioneering campaigner for women’s and workers’ rights.
  • Supported his estranged wife, Mette, in pursuing her own career.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the contradiction of loving Gauguin’s art and hating the man:
  "Is it all right to love the art and hate the man? This is not a very good moral position." – Sue Prideaux [05:02]
• Dismissing the dramatic accusations:
  "He was doing nothing illegal or unusual with the girls and he didn't have syphilis. Well, you know, that's a bit of a jumping off point, really." – Sue Prideaux [08:47]
• On Polynesian perspectives:
  "Once you had actually conquered your enemy and he was sacrificially killed, you just had a little bit of him to take his soul into your soul... [Gauguin] was invited to exchange souls with a Polynesian, which is really rather wonderful." – Sue Prideaux [34:55]
• On challenging art world narratives:
  "The Courtauld Gallery website accompanying the picture says that Gauguin took advantage of his position as a European colonizer... Are you hoping that the curators and the art historians... will read your book and perhaps re-express some of their accompanying texts in the light of this?" – Hannah Kaye [53:22]
  "Yes. Could do with a bit of revision, couldn't it?" – Sue Prideaux [53:40]

Important Timestamps

• [03:16] – Modern reassessment of Gauguin’s reputation; contextualizing as problematic
• [05:12] – The 2019 National Gallery exhibition’s framing of Gauguin
• [07:51] – Age of consent and norms of the era
• [08:17] – Scientific evidence refuting Gauguin’s syphilis rumors
• [09:03] – Discovery of Gauguin’s lost manuscript
• [11:35] – Gauguin’s transition from Impressionism to a unique style
• [14:43] – Early life in Peru and lifelong search for “Arcadia”
• [18:27] – Van Gogh and Gauguin: the Arles “sunflowers” chapter
• [23:43] – Impact of the 1889 Exposition Universelle
• [28:52] – Gauguin’s arrival in colonized Tahiti
• [33:43] – Traditional sexual mores and societal structures in Tahiti
• [37:29] – Tehamana: Gauguin’s “wife,” muse, and cultural teacher
• [41:57] – Gauguin’s radical portrayal of brown-skinned women
• [43:03] – Violent attack in Brittany; deepening bond with Polynesia
• [46:35] – Gauguin’s advocacy for indigenous rights and clash with colonial authorities
• [48:56] – Final years: Pahura’s memories and Gauguin’s relationship with women
• [53:22] – Hope for revising institutional narratives on Gauguin

Closing Thoughts

Prideaux’s research compels listeners to distinguish between retrospective moral judgments and historically informed understanding, urging audiences—and museums—to review hasty condemnations in favor of balanced context. Gauguin’s lived experience, artistry, and personal relationships reveal complexity, contradiction and, ultimately, a far richer legacy than current “cancellation” debates allow. The episode is a nuanced, empathetic re-examination that will interest art lovers, historians, and anyone reflecting on legacy and the shifting sands of morality.