Gauguin was a sailor and then a stockbroker at the money market. Husband of a young Danish woman, Mette Gad, he became a father. Then, he started painting. In order to reach his “shades’ poetry”, he got around in Brittany, Panama, West Indies, “lands of primal liberties”. Always looking for human beings that hadn’t been “spoiled by progress yet” and were marked by “archaic religiosity”, he’d give the best of his painting in Polynesia. The Arearea (“Amusements”) painting was painted during his first stay in Tahiti. The red dog was a particular source of curiosity during the exhibition at Durand-Ruel’s place in 1893.
