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An incredible account of the life and works of Paul Gauguin (1848 –1903), narrated by a major figure in art history. The quixotic story of Gauguin, a foreign exchange broker who started painting quite late in his life, is in many ways exceptional, and one must never forget the singularity of his artistic enterprise. Breaking away from the Impressionist movement, Gauguin affirmed the preeminence of the associations of the mind over sensorial perceptions, greatly contributing to the development of the emerging Symbolist movement. The painter expressed this philosophical belief influenced by Japanese art for the first time in Brittany, where he defined a new style, called “Cloissonism.” In the aftermath of his dramatic experience living with Van Gogh in Arles, Gauguin would look for new sources of artistic inspiration away from civilization, first in Tahiti and then in the Marquesas Islands. There, his style acquired an exceptional spiritual depth marked by archaism. Cachin’s text, featuring richly detailed commentaries of the artworks, gives voice to the doubts and concerns of Gauguin, his joys and disagreements, and his ceaseless search for “the mysterious center of thought,” which would ultimately lead him to affirm the “right to always dare.”