Advanced Search
Advanced Search

Landscape with Two Breton Women

Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
1889

Medium/Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 72.4 x 91.4 cm (28 1/2 x 36 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Harry and Mildred Remis and Robert and Ruth Remis
Accession Number1976.42
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Between 1886 and 1891 Gauguin spent extended periods of time in the rural community of Pont‑Aven, Brittany, in northwestern France. Although an established international artists’ colony and popular tourist destination, Pont-Aven—with its distinctive local customs and garments—appealed to Gauguin and others for its supposed difference from urban, industrial Paris. In constructed scenes of everyday life, like this one, Gauguin exploited mythic notions of the Breton region being remote and archaic, and its inhabitants being deeply religious, by imbuing his paintings with spiritual, if ambiguous, significance. Here, two Breton peasants sit in the shade of an attenuated tree within a radiant landscape. One figure seems at first to be praying, but in fact she’s eating—holding a piece of fruit, perhaps, in her left hand and a knife in her right. The other is abruptly cropped by the canvas’ margin, recalling compositional devices common in Japanese prints and embraced by Edgar Degas [26.790]. The thick outlines and flat passages of heightened color demonstrate Gauguin’s continued departure from Impressionism and increasing expressive simplification.

InscriptionsLower left: P. Gaugin 89
ProvenanceFebruary 23, 1891, Gauguin sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 23 (no. 24 in the procès-verbaux) to Ker-Xavier Roussel, (b. 1867 - d. 1944), Paris, for 280 fr.; owned jointly by Roussel, Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard (b. 1868 - d. 1940), Frédéric Henry, and Julien Magnin [see note 1]; 1905, acquired fully by Vuillard [see note 2]; 1940, by inheritance to Vuillard's nephew (and Roussel's son), Jacques Roussel, Paris; 1954, sold by Jacques Roussel to Georges Maratier for Jean Davray, Paris; 1964, sold by Davray to Alex Maguy, Paris; 1964, sold by Maguy to Harry and Mildred Remis, Boston; 1976, partial gift of Harry and Mildred Remis to the MFA; 2001, remaining interest passed by descent to Robert and Ruth Remis, Boston; 2007, gift of Robert and Ruth Remis to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 12, 2007)

NOTES:
[1] As suggested by the correspondence of Frédéric Henry, an architect and intimate friend of Edouard Vuillard, from November 17 and December 24, 1905, it is possible that Pierre Hermant (a composer), Paul Percheron (a businessman and mystic), and Henri Roussel (K.-X. Roussel's brother, a doctor) were also joint owners of this painting (see letter from Juliet Bareau to Barbara Shapiro, March 11, 1985, in MFA curatorial file). [2] In a letter from Daniel Wildenstein to Barbara Shapiro (January 28, 1976; in MFA curatorial file), the family of Vuillard and Roussel are said to have provided the following information: Sérusier, Denis, Bonnard, Vuillard, and Roussel bought this painting jointly in 1891 to help Gauguin, and rotated it among themselves for specified periods of time. This arrangement soon grew impossible and it was Vuillard who finally paid back the other four owners and kept the painting for himself. When he died, his nephew and Roussel's son, Jacques Roussel, inherited it. This is supplemented by information provided in the correspondence of Frédéric Henry (see above, n. 1) that Julien Magnin was in possession of the painting at the time of his death in October 1905, at which time the remaining joint owners drew lots to establish sole ownership. Presumably Vuillard acquired it in this way.
Copyright