Impressions of an impressionist in Denmark from 1884

Excerpt from the article "The grumpy genius who grimaced in the company of Danes", Copenhagen Post 12-18 November 2010.

Paul Gauguin moved to Copenhagen because of his wife. And he hated it.
In 1873 at the age of 25, he married a Danish woman named Mette Sophie Gad in Paris.
They had five children together.
While working as a highly-paid stockbroker, he began to pursue his artistic interests, carving, drawing and painting in his spare time, and purchasing Impressionist art by artists such as Pissarro and Cézanne.
As Gauguin pursued his artistic ambitions, leaving Mette at home with the children, her material instincts bred material claims. She saw no future in her husband's artistic ambitions.
Under the increased financial pressures, she sailed off to Copenhagen to investigate job opportunities. She then returned with the news that there was great interest in Impressionist works in Denmark, and that she could earn money teaching French.
In Copenhagen, Gauguin secured himself a job as a sales representative, a low-income position that he found humiliating.
When he was not working he was either off painting or writing dolorous letters to his friends in France, in which he denigrated every characteristic of Danish society.

"I deeply loathe Denmark, and the Danish people, and the Danish climate. There are many other things that make me hate Denmark, but they are private reasons which one ought to keep to oneself."

He found the conversation stifling and detected false modesty among the Danes.
"You have to get used to the kind of conversation you hear everyday. They ask me questions like: -Coming from such a great country you must find everything here much behind times. We are so small. What do you think of Copenhagen, our museums, etc.? They are not of much account-. And all of this is said to make you say just the opposite. And you do so, presumably out of sheer politeness. You don't forget your manners."

"The system of getting engaged in Denmark is good, because it does not bind either of the parties. You change your fiancée as you change your shirt".

"They played a curious practical joke on me in Copenhagen. I was pressingly invited by a gentleman to exhibit my works in their gallery. I looked in on the opening day and to my indescribable astonishment was told that the exhibition had been closed by order at noon. It was impossible to get any information; everybody's mouth was shut. The footman received me with the statement that his master had gone to the countryside and would not be back for a long time. As you see, Denmark is a charming country".