Where Do We Come From?

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Paul Gauguin, 1897, Oil on Canvas, 139 x 375 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US.

Gauguin's use of vibrant colours, clear outlines, rough and bold, focussing on the form of objects rather than light, is 'Impressionism' moving a little into 'Expressionism'; 'impressionism' leaning towards towards 'Primitivism'.

Van Gogh's STARRY NIGHT was painted after a disagreement with Gaugin, famous because of the injury he caused to his own ear. Gauguin left van Gogh and fled to Tahiti to recuperate, where he painted this profoundly reflective and questioning image, read chronologically in the spirit of defiance, from right to left. Split by distance, they could not have seen each other's creations in the making so it is striking that the dominant blue, used everywhere - objects, ground cover and distant background, is similarly dispersed by this piercing yellow.

'Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Paul Gauguin, 1897, Oil on Canvas, 139 x 375 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US