Paul Gauguin

Ambroise Vollard, Paris

Private Collection, Paris

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Plaisir de France, 1951, no. 89
Paris, Grand Palais, Salon d'Automne, 1978 (entitled Paysage de Pont-Aven)

Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin, vol. I, Paris, 1964, no. 360, illustrated p. 189

The painting on the canvas is in beautiful condition. The canvas has been lined. The surface appears to be clean and the entire composition is well preserved. Under ultraviolet light, there is no visible paint loss. This work is in excellent condition.
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Known for its verdant landscape and traditional customs, Brittany served as inspiration for many artists as early as the 1860s. It is Gauguin's depictions, however, that delve beyond the simple beauty of this French countryside and reveal a more profound connection between artist and subject. As he wrote in a letter to his friend Emile Schuffenecker, "I love Brittany which I find savage and primitive. When my clogs ring on the the granite ground I hear the dull and powerful sound that I am looking for in painting" (Victor Merles, ed., Correspondence de Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1984, letter 141, p. 172). With its Breton figures set against a vibrant landscape, Au-dessus de la mer exemplifies this particular significance.

After spending several months in Martinique, Gauguin returned to Brittany in January, 1888. He applied the lush palette, which he had adopted in the tropical environment, to the dramatic landscapes of Brittany. These years represent the apex of his Pont-Aven style and the creation of an artistic approach that he would later employ in his Tahitian period. George Shackelford and Fronia Wissman write, "In Brittany, Gauguin forged a bold and more decorative style of painting. Instead of using small, variegated strokes of paint to suggest forms in light in the Impressionist manner, he began to use flattened space, rhythmic and defined shapes, and brilliant colors to produce images that were meant to be emotional interpretations of nature" (George T. M. Shackelford & Fronia E. Wissman, Impressions of Light: The French Landscape from Corot to Monet (exhibition catalogue), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 2002, p. 197).

This picture combines the striking palette that typified his work in Martinique and a modern compositional structure that owes much to Japanese printmaking, particularly Hiroshige's work. This appropriation of Japanese style would prove significant in the Nabis movement to which Gauguin's work in Brittany gave rise. The artist here matches a vertiginous view typical of his Brittany landscape paintings with a plunging perspective derived from Japanese prints. The decorative treatment of the landscape and the flattening of perspectival space illustrate Gauguin's bold artistic vision.