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How did Paul Gauguin use his Peruvian ancestry in shaping his artistic identity?
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Paul Gauguin
Self-portrait by Paul Gauguin, oil on wood, 1889; in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 79.2 Ć 51.3 cm.
Upon his return to France in late 1887, Paul Gauguin began to cultivate an exotic persona to distinguish his artistic identity. He specifically pointed to his Peruvian ancestry as a foundational element of "primitivism" within his own nature and creative vision.1
By framing his heritage in this way, Gauguin sought to align himself with a more raw, authentic, and non-Western perspective, which became central to his departure from the techniques of Impressionism. This self-fashioned identity supported his broader artistic goal of rejecting the perceived corruption of contemporary Western civilization in favor of what he termed a "primitive" ideal.12