A Landscape at Pont Aven
Pont Aven, Brittany, 1888
Oil on canvas
Gauguin stayed in the village of Pont Aven in Brittany in 1886 and again in 1888, the date of this view.
It shows a group of thatched farm buildings set in a fertile landscape at odds with the prevailing image of the desolate Breton countryside.
Doubts have been raised about the painting’s authenticity due to a clumsiness in the composition and in the handling of the paint. However, there are some fine passages which are possibly beyond a copyist’s capabilities. Perhaps the inferior elements simply show Gauguin merely going through the motions.
Purchased 1948 (No.48.12)
