. Paul Gauguin, his life and art . n-doubtedly made a brave attempt to per- 126 PAUL GAUGUIN suade the natives to accept him as one oftheir own kind. But, unfortunately, thenatives had seen thousands of Europeansbefore him, either voyagers of the PierreLoti type or commercial exploiters lookingupon them as dirty Kanakas. They nowhad their revenge in the only way possibleto a conquered race. They spent his money,flattered his painting and his vanity, andsmiled behind his back. Before a year was out his capital hadvanished. There were no buyers for hispictures on the island and Paris was faraway
. Paul Gauguin, his life and art . n-doubtedly made a brave attempt to per- 126 PAUL GAUGUIN suade the natives to accept him as one oftheir own kind. But, unfortunately, thenatives had seen thousands of Europeansbefore him, either voyagers of the PierreLoti type or commercial exploiters lookingupon them as dirty Kanakas. They nowhad their revenge in the only way possibleto a conquered race. They spent his money,flattered his painting and his vanity, andsmiled behind his back. Before a year was out his capital hadvanished. There were no buyers for hispictures on the island and Paris was faraway. Gauguin found that he had suddenlyaged—a common exj^erience enough forwhite men coming suddenly into a tropiccHmate. His heart began to give him trou-ble. This savage Eden, which the whitemen had found and corrupted, was takingits little revenge. He attempted to persuade the governorto furnish funds for his passage back toFrance. In vain. He hoped that buyersfor his pictures would come forward in I i <^ ^iDPA):^S A*ron, :.E. THE OLD SPIRIT HIS LIFE AND ART 127 Paris. Useless. Fortunately his fame wasnow spreading to neutral to his wifes efforts he was invitedto take part in an exhibition in Denmark. On the eighth of December, 1892, he for-warded a packet of eight pictures to thisexhibition, among which was the superbcanvas UEsprit Veille. The picture cre-ated an immense stir at Copenhagen whenexhibited the next year and brought hun insome money. But in Paris his fame stead-ily declined and he was every day less talkedabout. Albert Aurier, a young critic who hadwritten in his favor and helped to make hisart known, was dead. Theodore Van Gogh,who had supported him and had attemptedto find buyers for his work, had followedhis unfortunate brother into the his pupils of yesterday, Bernard,Serusier and the rest, were going about Parisvaguely hinting that they had taughtGauguin something and that Cezanne andVan Gogh were better artists. The hal
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