Paul Gauguin was introduced into the Impressionist circle by Camille Pissarro and contributed major works to five of the eight Impressionist exhibitions between 1879 and 1886. During these years, he transformed himself from a banker-stockbroker into a professional artist and from a family man into a solitary searcher for artistic, moral, and spiritual truths. Yet this vital period of Gauguin's life has usually been dismissed as an awkward prelude to his brilliant career as an anti-Impressionist. This handsomely illustrated book reconsiders Gauguin's apprenticeship as an Impressionist and reassesses his contributions to the movement through the extraordinarily subtle and beautiful paintings, sculpture, and ceramic works he created during the years before 1887.