Breton Women at a Wall [SEP] creator
Breton Women at a Wall
Breton Women at a Wall is an oil painting by Émile Bernard. It is part of the permanent collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Description.
Bernard most likely painted this painting from memory, modeled after a trip he took with Paul Gauguin in 1888 to Brittany. The painting has five Breton women and one man gathering around a wall. Their faces are pointed down toward the cobblestone wall. Their heads are covered in traditional Pont-Aven coiffes and they are in traditional Brittany
to traditional rules, including scale or perspective.
Historical information.
A young Bernard, together with Gauguin, took a trip to Pont-Aven, a remote location in France, and began creating a new, postimpressionist style of painting that defined the Pont-Aven School and Cloisonnism during the summer of 1888. Along with Gauguin, Bernard cherished Brittany and the Breton people, and "Breton Women at a Wall" reflects his fascination with their customs, which, in contemporary French society, was often seen as a