Gauguin

In this lavish monograph, a revised edition of the 1992 original, Cachin, the former director of the Musee d'Orsay, sheds light on Gaugin's oeuvres and demonstrates how the painter's unconventional life was reflected in his work. Shee offers a substantial biography, as well as analysis of Gaugin's influences (from Degas to Puvis de Chavannes) with an extensive catalogue of his studies and finished works. Fueled by an incorrigible ego, Gaugin willed his own transformation from workaday stockbroker into a self-taught master painter and, more than his contemporaries,""tried to go beyond Impressionist realism and create a major modern style, a more ambitious art-form that would express the world rather than reproduce it."" Ballard's choppy translation sometimes distracts from Cachin's insights, but this study of the artist's development remains accessible to all enthusiasts. 300 color and b&w illustrations.