Like Van Gogh, Gauguin has become a legendary figure in the vernacular: the Parisian stockbroker who suddenly sacrificed his home, his job and even his family to devote himself entirely to painting, traveling as far afield as Tahiti. Gauguin was first an impressionist, then he gave up realistic representation in favor of decorative, vivid two-dimensional surfaces. His paintings, which reached their full maturity in Oceania, had a revolutionary effect on the whole of Western painting.