It was a sepia picture of an Anglo-Polynesian woman bought at an auction that fired the imagination of Jean-Luc Coatalem, inspiring him to follow the traces left by Gauguin in his travels around the world. Who was the woman in the picture, and why did Gauguin paint the face of her son, Atiti, on the day of his death at Papeete? What he discovered is recorded in this graceful book, which not only brings to life the artist's life and loves, his mistresses and his work, but offers a vivid portrait of late 19th-century artistic life. Accessible and compelling, "In Search of Gauguin" is a spiritual, human, and geographical quest, rich in beautifully lush imagery and period detail.