. Paul Gauguin, his life and art . ngelse had not the nineteenth century—with itsrailroads and the life-weariness of its culti-vated classes—made of him a hordes of tourists, of bad artists, ofdealers in journalese, who rave about Brit-tany, Cornwall, or Ireland as picturesquesummer-resorts, show that civilization hasobtained its revenge on the savage who pre-fers to remain a savage. Paul Gauguin did not assuredly go toBrittany to discover the picturesque. Hadhe done so his painting would have rankedno higher than the painting of CharlesCottet or of Lucien Simon. His real homeas
. Paul Gauguin, his life and art . ngelse had not the nineteenth century—with itsrailroads and the life-weariness of its culti-vated classes—made of him a hordes of tourists, of bad artists, ofdealers in journalese, who rave about Brit-tany, Cornwall, or Ireland as picturesquesummer-resorts, show that civilization hasobtained its revenge on the savage who pre-fers to remain a savage. Paul Gauguin did not assuredly go toBrittany to discover the picturesque. Hadhe done so his painting would have rankedno higher than the painting of CharlesCottet or of Lucien Simon. His real homeas an artist, as he was later to discover, layelsewhere—under less troubled skies, in themidst of more tropical vegetation. But thegloom, the melancholy inertia, the mysticfaith, the simplicity of this land of wind-mills, small trees, granite coasts and menhirs,worked strongly on the yet untamed prim-itive in him. Stronger still perhaps wasthe appeal of the sea, the most restless and H JO CO o rm O •n >OO CO H X Hm >Z o. i HIS LIFE AND ART 57 yet the most changeless element in was in appearance, as in manners,a sailor—the eye, the direct curt speech, thereserved disdain, the freedom of manners, allthese in him had been accentuated by hisearly experiences. In Brittany he foundthe sea; he found an unspoiled people; hefound, above all, repose from the everlastingchatter of art-theories that, like the bubblingof endless bottles of too light champagne,frothed eternally in the cafes of gave him greater faith in himself;Brittany began to dispel the nineteenth cen-tury skepticism that was slowly stifling him. His first stay in Pont-Aven was destinedto be short. It is chiefly remarkable for thefact that here he was visited by EmileBernard, then only about seventeen yearsof age, whose relations with Gauguin andother painters afford matter for so muchcontroversy that they must be examined indetail. Bernard was the type of infant phenom-enon that
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