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Why did Paul Gauguin seek a French government grant to travel to Tahiti?
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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.
Paul Gauguin sought a grant from the French government to travel to Tahiti because he was increasingly dissatisfied with contemporary Western civilization, which he viewed as corrupt. Having previously described Paris as a "rotten Babylon," he longed for a more remote environment in which to work and pursue his "primitive" artistic ideals. After considering and rejecting other locations such as northern Vietnam and Madagascar, he applied for the government grant to facilitate his move to the island.1