Artist. First he was a sailor, then a stockbroker in Paris but painted in his free time. He began working with Camille Pissarro in 1874 and showed in every Impressionist exhibition between 1879 and 1886. In 1884 he moved with his family to Copenhagen, where he unsuccessfully pursued a business career. He returned to Paris in 1885 to paint full-time, leaving his family in Denmark. In 1885 he met Edgar Degas, next year he met Charles Laval and Emile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh. With Laval he traveled to Panama and Martinique in 1887 in search of more exotic subject matter. He turned to primitive cultures for inspiration. In 1891 he auctioned his paintings to raise money for a voyage to Tahiti, which he undertook that same year. Two years later illness forced him to return to Paris but he was able to return to Tahiti in 1895. He unsuccessfully attempted suicide in January 1898. In 1899 he founded his own periodical “Le Sourire”. In 1901 he moved to the Marquesas, French Polynesia, where he died. (bio by: Jelena)