Part 5 (1/2)

V

By the end of the year 1889, Gauguin's naravitated back to Paris Being however still without resources, he took residence once more with Emile Schuffenecker

At that period, the literary and artistic school which had produced naturalis rapidly old-fashi+oned Paris was on the verge of her aesthetic nineties A sroup of writers, chief of ere Verlaine, Mallarainst the nineteenth century, and had been, in consequence of their love for the remote past, at first labelled Decadents This title was soon abandoned for the better designation of Syuin appeared to the smaller fry of Symbolis not fictitious He had definitely broken away fros He had defiantly ruptured his own faht to restore art to its pri in the process the inexhaustible strength and vitality of peasant and popular art His appearance ast them, in a sailor's jersey, a sailor cap, sailor's trousers, and carved wooden shoes, excited a sensation He becaers-on, a sort of syuin's head was turned by this adulation, but in reality, under a new veneer of affectation, he remained what he had always been Noin thethat strange epoch of his financial career, he had indeed becoely an European; but this was merely on the surface and had coe An invincible shyness and indisposition to reveal himself to others were in him, masked by an appearance of sullen reserve and discourtesy This shyness disappeared when he ith children, peasants, or natives But to every one else Gauguin attempted to be as rude as possible, in order to keep theenerally, he succeeded

It is sain intolerable, and that Gauguin had to seek out a

Schuffenecker is scarcely to be pitied He seeuin was the sort ofto love and understand In losing Gauguin, he lost the one thing that was ever likely to bring him fame, the reputation which his studio had already acquired in the eyes of certain auin's collection of pictures and sculptures by hiuin shortly found a better friend perhaps the only real friend he ever had--illing to give him the use of a studio This was Daniel de Monfreid, who had, incidentally, under the nae Daniel taken part in the Volpini exhibition

It is worthy of note that what brought theether was not a community of taste in matters of art, but a couin, had been a sailor He was aas an amusement Every summer, he dropped his palette and brushes, put on his master mariner's cap, which he had won after an apprenticeshi+p aboard a coasting vessel, and set forth in his own schooner of thirty-six tons for a cruise in the Mediterranean This went on for years until de Monfreid, weary of dodging quarantine restrictions, and getting entangled in the coenerously offering his schooner to the Naval School at Cette, where she ultimately met her end At this period he was known to his artistic friends in Paris as ”the captain,” and had been introduced to Gauguin by Schuffenecker, on the former's return frouin's art owe an i disposition, shared by both, or to their common love and experience of the sea, or to the fact that both were painters (de Monfreid's experiences in the Mediterranean had e frankness and nomad primitiveness to which all the rest of their common tastes were due, is unknown The fact remains that the friendshi+p between them was of that ideal kind that is never broken: the friendshi+p between the creator and helper, which all artists long for and to which so few attain In finding de Monfreid, Gauguin experienced alood fortune that he was to have in life The last stroke of all ca de Monfreid's hospitality, he suddenly decided to leave Europe for Tahiti

[Illustration: Hina Maruru (Feast to Hina)]

The happy discovery of a letter which Gauguin wrote at this ti-vexed point of what induced him to take this decision[1] He chanced to attend, or to read the report of, a lecture on Tahiti, given by a certain Van der Veere Van der Veere apparently pitched the tone of his discourse to suit the tastes of a fashi+onable audience He pictured Tahiti as a terrestrial paradise where money was unknown ”Under a sky without winter, upon an earth of a marvelous fertility, the Tahitian has only to lift his hands to gather in his food; so he never works For hi love” It is easy to picture the effect of such phrases on the uin Tahiti held out the hope that Martinique had failed to realize; the hope that he ination was fired by the idea He declared that he intended to quit Europe and live in Tahiti henceforward There he could perhaps forget all the hardshi+ps of the past, and die forgotten by Paris, happy and free to paint ”sans gloire aucune pour les autres” And if his children could join him there, all the better--his isolation would then be co Symbolists of course shouted ”Bravo!” at the news of the proposed voyage Tahiti! Another syuin sufficiently for serious art, by persuading him to embark on various symbolistic enterprises, such as the production of a masterpiece entitled _Loss Of Maidenhood_, which has fortunately vanished, and an etching representing Mallarerness to see Gauguin safely e boredouin was feted, wined, dined Thirty of his works were auctioned off at the Hotel Drouot, producing the shty francs The Governe to Oceania an official ”artistic mission,” on condition that this did not involve them in a responsibility for the expenses A banquet was held at the Cafe Voltaire, where all the Syuin has left some ironical observations on this or on a similar banquet, which show clearly his opinion of the cereiven by the Theatre d'Art for the departing artist and also for Verlaine, then rapidly sinking into the squalor of his last years[3]

Thefact about the perfore stroke of irony, Maurice Maeterlinck's play _L'Intruse_ e

Death walked the stage before Gauguin's eyes, as if to show him what to expect And yet he did not draw back

On the fourth of April 1891, Gauguin, abandoning Paris, started on his voyage of discovery to Tahiti Morice, in his interesting book on Gauguin, declares that when the decision was irrevocably made, and the mission to Tahiti had been stauin's self-possession momentarily abandoned him, and he broke down, and wept

And when Morice asked the reason, he replied in these strange, tragic, touching words:--

”Listen to me I have never kno to keep alive both ht I have not even been able, up to now, to keep alive ht alone And now that I can hope for the future, I feel more terribly than I have ever felt, the horror of the sacrifice I have e in his heart, Gauguin abandoned civilization

[Footnote 1: _Les Marges_, Paris, May 15, 1918]

[Footnote 2: Gauguin had also undoubtedly read Loti's book His letters show that before deciding upon Tahiti he had considered the possibility of going to Tonkin or Madagascar]

[Footnote 3: It uin received no financial profit whatever from this performance, and Verlaine very little]

PART IV: THE RETURN TO SAVAGERY 1891-1895

I

Tahiti, the largest of the French Society Islands, lies in the South Pacific Ocean That is about the lie Many perhaps understand vaguely that the climate is tropical but modified by sea breezes, the scenery wonderful, the people famous for beauty and licentiousness Nevertheless, a e of the island's mysterious racial story could not fail to interest