PAUL SÉRUSIER | Deux Bretonnes au bord de l'Aulne - Vallée de l'Aulne

Paul Bernard, Châteauneuf-du-Faou (acquired from the artist circa 1900)
Sale: Mes Scagliola et Staehli, Geneva, 21st May 1985, lot 305
Private Collection, Europe (purchased at the above sale. Sold: Christie's, Paris, 20th May 2009, lot 101)
Galerie Matignon Saint-Honoré, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owners in 2011

Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Gauguin et le groupe de Pont-Aven, 1950, no. 49, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Vallée de l'Aulne)
Morlaix, Musée des Augustins, Hommage à Paul Sérusier, 1956, no. 10
Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Hommage à Sérusier et aux peintres du groupe de Pont-Aven, 1958, no. 10 (titled La Vallée de l'Aulne)
Pont-Aven, Hôtel de Ville, Paul Sérusier, 1973, no. 15 (titled Vallée de l'Aulne)
Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts & Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, L'École de Pont-Aven dans les collections publiques et privées de Bretagne, 1979, no. 94, illustrated in the catalogue

Yves Dautier, A propos de quelques collections bretonnes, Sérusier et les peintres du groupe de Pont-Aven, Rennes, 1962, illustrated p. 90
Marcel Guicheteau, Paul Sérusier, Paris, 1989, vol. II, no. 77, illustrated p. 99

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Painted in 1897, Deux bretonnes au bord de l’Aulne - Vallée de l'Aulne dates from Paul Sérusier's Breton period, when he was working closely with Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard and Meyer de Haan, and developed his Symbolist style. Isolated on the extreme western tip of France, the small Breton towns of Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu were virtually untouched by the effects of the rampant industrialisation that took hold in many French cities during the nineteenth century. Unique for the distinctive cultures and traditions of the local people, their timeless way of life and the raw nature of the landscape, these small towns offered a dramatic contrast to the French capital and were highly romanticised by the avant-garde. The rich visual material provided by the unspoiled scenery and daily activities of the local peasants would come to preoccupy Sérusier, Gauguin and the other painters known collectively as the Pont-Aven School.

The present work depicts two young peasant women at the edge of the winding river Aulne, just below Châteauneuf-du-Faou, the town where Sérusier lived from 1894 until his death in 1927. Sérusier’s anonymous female subjects, whom he painted frequently throughout his time at Pont-Aven, are expressed here within a relatively simplified palette and outlined forms. These specific stylistic motifs, which the artist developed during his involvement with the Pont-Aven group, were heavily influenced by his introduction to Gauguin’s Symbolist aesthetic in the late 1880s. 'Before the Impressionists had even gained widespread recognition, Gauguin started to oppose their methods […] aimed at capturing momentary impressions of nature, and went down the road of simplification of detail' (Albert Kostenevich, Gauguin, Bonnard, Denis: A Russian Taste for French Art (exhibition catalogue), Hermitage Amsterdam, Amsterdam & The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2013, p. 18). 

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Paul Sérusier.