Martin Gayford

Pilferer, paedophile and true great: Gauguin Portraits at the National Gallery reviewed

The curators tick Gauguin off for his 'colonial' and 'misogynistic' mindset – but the painter might not have disagreed with them

On 25 November 1895, Camille Pissarro wrote to his son Lucien. He described how he had bumped into his erstwhile protégé, Paul Gauguin, who had explained to him how artists in the future would ‘find salvation by replenishing themselves’ from the works of remote peoples and places. Pissarro was not convinced.

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