Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France, 1848. Gauguin's family moved to Peru when he was two years old, and he joined the merchant marine at age seventeen. After his mother died, Gauguin met a business man who gave him the position of a stockbroker and introduced him to Mette Sophie Gad, who would become Gauguin's wife in 1873. However, Gauguin lost his job when the stock market crashed, but it allowed him to pursue his artistic dreams. Gauguin's paintings are closely associated with Synthetism and Japonisme.