It is based exclusively on works held in collections across New York state.

"In the course of mounting the exhibition, any number of Gauguins, mostly in private collections, emerged as word of mouth spread that the Met was doing a show," museum director Philippe de Montebello said.

Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic features 120 works drawn from museums and private collections throughout the state.

The drawings, prints and sculptures will be exhibited through 20 October.

The display includes several wood and ceramic works never before seen by the public, some rarely-seen paintings and several pieces that had been listed as missing.

Stockbroker

Gauguin was born in 1848. A well-travelled man, he grew up in Paris and in Peru and circled the globe as a merchant marine and in the military before returning to Paris.

He became a stockbroker, married and fathered five children.

The works will be on display in the Metropolitan

In 1882, the French stock market collapsed and the 34-year-old abandoned both his job and his family to pursue a career in art.

He travelled to Brittany, the Caribbean and the South Pacific where he died of syphilis in 1903 at the age of 54.

The exhibition is organised chronologically, and begins with a marble bust of his son Emil that he carved in 1877.

It concludes with a letter written a month before his death, recounting a run-in with local authorities.