A remarkable, important portrait... Prideaux has a gift for illustrating the intricacies of an artist's perspective.--Sarah Moorhouse "Los Angeles Review of Books"

A gift for disrupting snap judgments... [Prideaux] chooses to consider events in view of historical circumstance rather than moral dicta.--Susan Tallman "Atlantic"

Lively and absorbing... Wild Thing offers a rich retelling of the Gauguin story.--Hannah Stamler "American Scholar"

Engaging... A vivid portrait of Paul Gauguin.--Diane Scharper "Washington Examiner"

The definitive biography of an artist like Gauguin rolls around once in a generation, and this might well be the one for ours.--Stephen Smith "Literary Review"

This sympathetic biography is a heroic rehabilitation . . . Prideaux is one of the finest biographers working today.--Pratinav Anil "Times (UK)"

A brilliantly readable and compassionate study of Gauguin - not just as a painter, sculptor, carver and potter, but as a human soul perpetually searching for what is always just out of reach.--Artemis Cooper "Spectator"

This detailed biography complicates our perception of the bad boy of French art and illuminates his fraught friendship with Van Gogh . . . Prideaux examines the facts and contexts of the painter's South Sea life in greater detail than before, while refusing to begin to judge any of those choices.--Tim Adams, Book of the Day "Observer"

An immaculate biography: even handed, scholarly, comprehensive and historically informed.--Michael Prodger "New Statesman"

Scintillating . . . [a] triumph . . . As a man, as an artist, Gauguin was more than one thing, and Prideaux colourfully fleshes out his story with nuance and detail.-- "Financial Times"

Ambitious, clear-eyed... A complex, intractable man to the last.-- "The Economist"

A vivid, revisionist picture of the controversial artist's life, from France to Tahiti.--Flora Bowen and Cal Revely-Calder "Daily Telegraph"

Sumptuous . . . magnificent.-- "Daily Mail"

A 'scintillating' achievement.--The Week, Book of the Week

Reflective and lyrical.--Nikhil Krishnan "Telegraph"

Newly definitive, impeccably researched, and lavishly illustrated... See[s] a pioneering artist in a new light.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

A rich psychological portrait that is buttressed by abundant historical detail. [Wild Thing] makes for a revealing window into a unique artistic mind.-- "Publishers Weekly"

As an art critic and cultural historian Sue Prideaux is thoughtful and knowledgeable. As a biographer she is witty and bold. She writes with panache about the artist's prosperous years and with unshockable sympathy about his hard times. A scintillating account of a richly complicated life.--Lucy Hughes-Hallett, author of Peculiar Ground

A spirited biography... [Wild Thing] is an ode to both a singular visionary and a world, not unlike ours, in the throes of political and artistic turmoil.--Hamilton Cain "Minnesota Star Tribune"

Gruesomely fascinating... A biography for anyone who wants to know about the man behind some irrepressibly memorable art, about one of the most creatively magic moments of European history and about a vividly extreme version of a recurring human situation.--Anne Higonnet "Wall Street Journal"

Enthralling [and] terrific... When it comes to Gauguin, [Prideaux] is everything you might want in a biographer: diligent, judicious, compassionate without being indulgent.--Jennifer Szalai "New York Times"

Invites us to reconsider everything we thought we knew about Gauguin... [Wild Thing] brims with reputation-redeeming surprises.--Kelly Horan "Boston Globe"

Sue Prideaux's highly readable biography argues that Gauguin's life was far more complicated and nuanced than previously understood.--Terry W. Hartle, Christian Science Monitor, Ten Best Books of the Month

Remarkable... Reëxamines [Gauguin's] vision.--Alexandra Schwartz "New Yorker"

Wise, engaging. . . . [Prideaux has] an unusual and compelling degree of sympathy.--Max Carter "Air Mail"

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2025-05-13

Length: 416 pages