Paul Gauguin, Dramas of the Sea, Brittany (Les drames de la mer, Bretagne) from the series Volpini, 1889
The pardons of Brittany
Some of the most popular attractions of Brittany were the pardons, annual religious processions dating to the Middle Ages where indulgences were granted for the remission of sins.
For many printmakers, these medieval relics represented a lost way of life, providing a kind of relief from the hyper-materialist culture of modern Paris.
Gauguin’s zincograph, Les Drames de la Mer, Bretagne likely drew inspiration from one of these ancient rituals.
Emile Bernard, Breton Women Making Haystacks (Bretonnes faisant les foins), 1889
The land
The picturesque landscape of Brittany was also very important to the artists of Pont-Aven. Situated on the coast of the Atlantic, the province offered varied scenery, from rolling pastoral fields to rocky granite cliffs plunging into the sea.
In their works, printmakers preferred to focus on these aspects, omitting the hotels, mills, and trade ships that were also an integral part of modern life in Brittany.
Further reading
- Gabriel P. Weisburg, 'Vestiges of the Past: The Brittany "Pardons" of Late-nineteenth-century French Painters', Arts Magazine 55, November 1980
- Caroline Boyle-Turner, The Prints of the Pont-Aven School: Gauguin and his Circle in Brittany, Lausanne 1986
- Catherine Puget, Gauguin et l'École de Pont-Aven, Paris 1997