Bretagne and Le Pouldu
Richard Hall has reported that he lived in Brittany for six years. This was probably between 1887 or 1888 and 1893, as I wrote in my previous blog post. Apparently, Hall and his family lived in Le Pouldu for most of that time. It is a small village by the sea on the southern coast of Brittany, southeast of Quimper. Hall's move was part of a larger trend: at that time, artists were flocking to Brittany. It was considered to have an authentic, distinctive culture and picturesque landscapes.
My source material includes the publication Taiteilijoiden Bretagne 1800-luvun lopussa (Artists in Brittany at the End of the 19th Century, 1998) by the Akseli Gallen-Kallela Museum, as well as two books published in France about Nordic artists in Brittany: Artistes finlandais en Bretagne 1880-1890 (1990) and Échappées nordiques: Scandinavian and Finnish Artists in France 1870-1914 (2008). These are the only recent books I have found so far that mention Richard Hall.
The Brittany boom among artists
Brittany's strong culture had already attracted interest in the world of science and art in the 18th century. Publications about the region further fueled this enthusiasm. Brittany was home to Stone Age megaliths, Celtic history, and its own languages, Breton and Gallo. In addition, the region's population had a distinctive style of dress. Nearly 1,200 variations of folk costumes have been found in the region. In Brittany, clothing indicated a person's age, religion, profession, wealth, and status in the community. The diversity of Breton folk costumes was one of the reasons why painters became interested in the region.Interest in Brittany began to grow among artists in the 1830s. At that time, Brittany was still difficult to reach, and travel there was mostly by river or stagecoach. In 1865, the railway reached Quimper and Brest, making Brittany much more accessible. Artists also appreciated Brittany's inexpensive but good inns. At that time, many foreign artists were studying at private art schools in Paris, and they needed a place to work during the hot summer months. Many teachers recommended Brittany as a travel destination, and it became popular among art students, especially during the summer.
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| Amélie Lundahl: Breton Girl (Sock Knitter), 1883 Oil on canvas Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Pont-Aven
The small village of Pont-Aven became one of Brittany's most popular painting locations, and an artists' colony was established there in the 1870s. By the mid-1880s, as many as 100 artists were living in the village. Popular subjects included the landscapes surrounding the village and the local residents going about their daily lives. At the end of the 1880s, Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, and Paul Sérusier met in Pont-Aven. A completely new artistic style was born, which was named the Pont-Aven School. Towards the end of the decade, Pont-Aven's popularity began to wane among artists, and by the end of the 19th century, this was true for the entire region of Brittany. Among the artists who visited Brittany, the most numerous were those from the United States. Finnish artists who worked in Brittany from the 1870s onwards included Oscar Kleineh, Aukusti Uotila, and Amélie Lundahl. Pont Aven was visited by Helen Schjerfbeck, Elin Danielson, and Maria Wiik, among others. Other notable Nordic artists include Alfred Wahberg, Wilhelm von Gegerfelt, Laurits Tuxen, Harriet Becker, and Kitty Kielland. Nordic artists favored outdoor subjects in their paintings.
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| Paul Gauguin: Vision after the Sermon, 1888 Oil on canvas, 72.2 × 91 cm Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Le Pouldu
According to the book Taiteilijoiden Bretagne 1800-luvun lopussa, Richard Hall settled in Le Pouldu in 1888. Between 1890 and 1893, Hall's address was listed in the Paris salon registers as "Le Pouldu, par Moélan (Finistère)." The size of the place is evident from the fact that the village name alone sufficed as an address. I do not know exactly where Hall and his family lived. However, it can be said that he worked in Le Pouldu for an unusually long and continuous period of time – many artists were content to visit Brittany during the summer, and they often traveled to see different landscapes and villages.If Hall had moved to Le Pouldu to find peace and quiet to work, that goal was soon shattered. Paul Gauguin arrived in the village in 1889, and with him came a small community of artists who lived in the Buvette de la Plage guesthouse. In addition to Gauguin, the group included among others Paul Sérusier, Charles Laval, Meijer de Haan, and Charles Filiger. They painted subjects in the style of the Pont-Aven school, using bright colors, in which the artist's own interpretation was more important than depicting the surrounding reality. The style was named Synthetism and became part of Western art history.
It would be very interesting to know how Hall experienced this completely new art movement. However, it did not affect his work. He remained faithful to the style and painting technique he had learned and produced some of his best works in Brittany. I will discuss them separately.
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| Philippe Tassier: Le Pouldu: the port on the Laïta estuary and lobster traps (postcard, circa 1930). Source: Wikimedia Commons |
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