He withdrew, to save his soul -- and his neck

Artist Paul Gauguin was born on this day in 1848.


"Fame! What a vain word, and what a vain recompense!" he wrote. "I think only of withdrawing myself far from men, and in consequence far from fame."

"Don't talk to me of Gauguin. I'd like to wring the fellow's neck!" -- Paul Cezanne.