Banker In Paris And Pursued: RECAMIER, ra-ka-mya', Jeanne Frangoise Julie Adelaide (nee BERNARD, ber-nar'), celebrated French beauty and social figure: b. Lyon, France, Dec. 4, 1777; d. Paris, May 11, 1849. She was educated at the Convent of la Deserte in Lyon. Her father, a banker, established his business in Paris in 1784, and at the age of 15 she joined him there.
Gauguin (1848-1903) had a Peruvian mother and in his youth shipped as a seaman to tropical ports. He was later a banker in Paris and pursued painting as a hobby. He soon became depressed with the sordidness of money-changing and felt a creative urge. In 1881 he turned to painting as a life work. Rejecting all previous theories, he became the most radical of the Impressionists and retired to Brittany to be close to nature. Disillusioned by the conventions of civilization, he fled, in 1891, to Tahiti to become part of the life of the South Seas, and there produced his most characteristic paintings. He loved the tropical colors, the brown-skinned natives, the luxurious landscape, and the romance of primitivism. His paintings are decorative and non-realistic. Figures are molded in attitudes to fit a preconceived pattern and they have a timeless, dignified calm. He applied pure color in broad flat areas and in flowing curves with only a suggestion of depth. The influences of Oriental arts are obvious and there are resemblances to medieval tapestry and stained glass design.
The Selective Shopper on the Prowl Paris is a shopper's heaven, especially if the shopper is on the distaff side. It is an expensive heaven, in these days, notably excepting perfumes, which are far cheaper in Paris than in America, but the cost doesn't seem to frighten tourists away. Paris est toujours Paris.
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