The Hostages

Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (5 January 1900 – 15 January 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (; French: [iv tɑ̃ɡi]), was a French Surrealist painter, known for his abstract landscapes.

Tanguy was the son of Félix Tanguy, a retired navy captain, and Anne-Marie Tanguy, and was born 5 January 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Affairs on Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. His parents were both of Breton origin. After his father's death in 1908, his mother moved back to her native Locronan, Finistère, and he ended up spending much of his youth living with various relatives.

In 1918, Tanguy briefly joined the merchant navy before being drafted into the Army, where he befriended Jacques Prévert. At the end of his military service in 1922, he returned to Paris, where he worked various odd jobs. He stumbled upon Giorgio de Chirico's painting The Child's Brain (1914) and was so deeply impressed he resolved to become a painter himself in spite of his complete lack of formal training.

Tanguy had a habit of being completely absorbed by the current painting he was working on.