French painters Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas probably met in the spring of 1879, when they were introduced by their mutual friend, fellow painter Camille Pissarro. Gauguin was then thirty years old and Degas forty-five. By that time, Degas was already an established artist and had created many iconic paintings, including several of his ballet scenes and The Absinthe Drinker (1875-76). Gauguin, on the other hand, was a struggling painter and still years away from producing his most famous works, i.e. the ones painted in Tahiti, such as Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?, 1892).
The two painters greatly admired each other's work and eventually became friends. Their friendship is often described as the most supportive relationship Gauguin ever had, lasting until his death in 1903. Even when no one else did, Degas consistently advocated for Gauguin, frequently buying his paintings and encouraging others to do the same. It was at Degas' encouragement that Paul Durand-Ruel, the renowned French art dealer, gave Gauguin the opportunity to hold an exhibition in his gallery in 1893, following Gauguin's return from Tahiti. Although Gauguin's Tahitian paintings and their indigenous titles were mocked by some contemporaries, including Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Degas praised the exhibited works and bought at least one of them.
On 15 August 1898, Gauguin wrote a letter to his close friend and fellow painter George-Daniel de Monfreid, of which an excerpt is seen below. Now that de Monfreid had been introduced to Degas, Gauguin took the opportunity to briefly discuss and applaud Degas' character.
I am very happy you have gotten to know Degas, and that while trying to help me you were able to make a connection that may be useful to you. Ah, yes! Degas has the name of being harsh and bitter.
But it is not so for those whom Degas holds worthy of his attention and esteem. He has a fine heart and he is intelligent. I am not surprised that he finds you talented and congenial. You remember doubtless that I never said anything to you of your talent until the moment when I really felt certain of it; it was not harshness, but honest frankness, and I am sure that an appreciation at such a time gave you more pleasure than the ordinary compliments that everyone receives.
Degas, both as to conduct and as to talent, is a rare example of all that an artist should be; though he has had as admirers all who are in power—Bonnat, Puvis and Antonin Proust—he has never asked for anything. From him one has never seen nor heard of a mean action, an indelicacy, or anything ugly. Art and dignity!
Source letter: The Letters of Paul Gauguin (1922), by Frederick O'Brien
Image (collage): (clockwise) Edgar Degas, George-Daniel de Monfreid and Paul Gauguin — all three paintings are self-portraits, painted respectively in ca. 1863, 1889 and 1893
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