he was the creator of paul gauguin, the visionary artist and myth-maker. rom the outset, gauguin crafted persona after persona to shape the direction of his art and alter the trajectory of his career. he could be gauguin the peasant, rejecting the excesses of capitalism. gauguin the lost soul on a spiritual quest... gauguin as jean valjean, the persecuted hero of victor hugo's "les misÉrables." denied recognition, he could shift his shape into gauguin the martyr, suffering christlike in the garden of olives, and of course the flip side -- the evil lucifer -- a fallen angel turned devil's disciple. all of his guises contained an element of truth. but the most recurring of them was gauguin the savage, the embodiment of a primitive consciousness. (music) his maternal grandmother, flora tristan, was an ardent socialist and feminist whose uncle was the spanish viceroy of peru. the gauguin family sailed for peru when paul was only a year old. his father died en route. but paul, his mother and sister spent the next five years in lima. years later, back in paris, h

he was the creator of paul gauguin, the visionary artist and myth-maker. rom the outset, gauguin crafted persona after persona to shape the direction of his art and alter the trajectory of his career. he could be gauguin the peasant, rejecting the excesses of capitalism. gauguin the lost soul on a spiritual quest... gauguin as jean valjean, the persecuted hero of victor hugo's "les misÉrables." denied recognition, he could shift his shape into gauguin the martyr, suffering christlike in the garden of olives, and of course the flip side -- the evil lucifer -- a fallen angel turned devil's disciple. all of his guises contained an element of truth. but the most recurring of them was gauguin the savage, the embodiment of a primitive consciousness. (music) his maternal grandmother, flora tristan, was an ardent socialist and feminist whose uncle was the spanish viceroy of peru. the gauguin family sailed for peru when paul was only a year old. his father died en route. but paul, his mother and sister spent the next five years in lima. years later, back in paris, h