Paul Gauguin was born into a family of liberals, in 1848. His father, a journalist who had traveled the world, moved the family to Peru in 1849. Gauguin grew up there, privileged. As a young man, he too traveled the world, then returned to France in 1872, settling into a normal life as a stockbroker. He also began painting. In 1886, Gauguin left normal life behind and focused entirely on art. He settled in Tahiti in 1891, where for the next 12 years he would paint the local children and adolescent girls in voluptuous color. The 150 paintings in this exhibition span his entire career, from his humble early work in Paris to his aesthetic innovations in the faraway lands of Tahiti and the Marquesas islands. —Elena Clavarino