Before he was painting nudes on Tahitian beaches, Paul Gauguin was a sailor, a salesman in Copenhagen, and a stockbroker in Paris. A leading influence in the post-Impressionist avant-garde, Gauguin settled in the Pacific in search of an unspoiled paradise and in rejection of “artificial” life in Europe. His vivid life story is matched only by his astonishingly bold paintings and masterful acts of color.