Who owns the copyrights to Paul Gauguin's works?

Answer 1

Due to age all of Paul Gauguin's work should reside in the public domain so you should be free to use images of it without restriction. However, as with most legal questions, there are additional considerations.

One just because the copyright has expired on a particular work that does not mean that other people's expression of that work is free to use. To stay with the example of Paul Gauguin... If I take a photograph of "Two Tahitian Women" and put it on my web page, even though the painting itself is public domain, my photograph of it is not and it would be an infringement of my copyright to use it without permission.

Two. The reason I stated that Gauguin's work should be public domain is because I am operating under the assumption that his paintings were published either during his life or shortly after his death (1848-1903). Any "undiscovered" work published after 1923 may still be protected by copyright especially if the painting in question was commissioned as a "work-for-hire" in which case it would protected for 95 years post publication or 120 years after completion, whichever is shorter.