Mette Gauguin

Gauguin’s vivid artworks sell for millions. He was an inspired and committed multi-media artist who worked with the Impressionists and had a tempestuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh. But he was also a competitive and rapacious man who left his wife to bring up five children and used his colonial privilege to travel to Polynesia, where in his 40s he took ‘wives’ between 13 and 15 years old, creating images of them and their world that promoted a fantasy paradise of an unspoilt Eden in the Pacific. Later, he challenged the colonial authorities and the Catholic Church in defence of the indigenous people, dying in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, sick, impoverished and alone.

A highlight of the autumn Event Cinema calendar, this landmark cinema release opens with a brand-new 60-minute documentary about the life and work of Paul Gauguin narrated by actor Dominic West. This will be followed by a 30-minute private view filmed exclusively for cinemas of the forthcoming National Gallery exhibition ‘The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Gauguin Portraits’, just after it opens in London.