On Symbols:
"Puvis explains his idea, yes, but he does not paint it. He is a Greek, while I am a savage... Puvis would call a painting "purity," and to explain it he would paint a young virgin holding a lily in her hand -- a familiar symbol; consequently one understands it. Gauguin for the title "purity," would paint a landscape with limpid waters; not stain of the civilized human being, perhaps a figure."
-- quoted in John Rewald, Post-Impressionism, p. 162.
"If we but examine the Bible a little, we can see that, generally speaking, the doctrine it contains, particularly that concerning Christ, is set out in a symbolic form which is twofold; first of all, a form which materializes the absolute Idea so as to make it easier to grasp, feigning a preternaturalistic air -- this is the literal, superficial, figurative, mysterious meaning of a parable; and second, an aspect giving the spirit of the parable. This is no longer the figurative but the representative, explicit meaning of the parable. The wise man will seek to enter into the secret of the parables, to penetrate their mystery, to imbibe the enigmatic element in them."
-- Paul Gauguin. The Writings of a Savage, ed. by Daniel Guérin, p. 164.
On Color:
"Color being enigmatic in itself, as to the sensations it gives us, then to be logical we cannot use it any other way than enigmatically every time we use it, not to draw with but rather to give the musical sensations that flow from its own nature, form itts internal, mysterious, enigmatic power. By means of skillful harmonies we create symbols. Color which, like music, is a matter of vibrations, reaches what is most general and therefore most undefinable in nature: its inner power....."
-- Paul Gauguin. The Writings of a Savage, ed. by Daniel Guérin, pp. 146-147.
Gauguin on the Impressionists:
"They focused their efforts around the eye, not in the mysterious center of thought, and from there they slipped into scientific reasons."
-- Paul Gauguin. The Writings of a Savage, ed. by Daniel Guérin, p. 140.
Paul Gauguin: on the Unconscious and Artistic Creation:
"But there is also this question which perplexes me: where does the execution of a painting begin, and where does it end? At the very moment when the most intense emotions fuse in the depths of one's being, at the moment when they burst forth and issue like lava from a volcano, is there not something like the blossoming of the suddenly created work, a brutal work, if you wish, yet great, and superhuman in appearance? The cold calculations of reason have not presided at this birth; who knows when, in the depth of the artist's soul the work was begun -- unconsciously perhaps."
-- letter to Daniel de Monfreid, March 1898, quoted by T.L. Sloan, "D'où venons nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons nous?: A Symbolist Philosophical Leitmotif," Arts Magazine,