Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven

Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven by Paul Gauguin, painted in 1888, is a foundational work created during the artist's critical tenure in rural Brittany. Executed in oil on canvas, the work exemplifies Gauguin's swift evolution during the period from 1876 to 1900, marking his definitive break from Impressionism toward the creation of Synthetism. This painting distills the essence of the Pont-Aven School style, utilizing broad, simplified planes of color and strong, dark outlines, a technique sometimes referred to as Cloisonnism.

The painting depicts a group of French peasant women engaged in a traditional circular dance, surrounded by the region's characteristic low-lying foliage. Gauguin’s focus was less on documentary realism and more on the symbolic power and internal harmony of the subject. The figures are rendered with deliberate stiffness, their faces often indistinct, shifting the viewer’s attention toward the rhythm of the composition and the decorative quality of the color arrangement. This stylistic choice reflects Gauguin’s search for "primitivism" and spiritual depth within the enduring traditions of Breton culture.

Gauguin’s treatment of space is highly innovative; he compresses the perspective and flattens the picture plane, emphasizing pattern over depth. This approach profoundly influenced subsequent generations of Symbolists and Post-Impressionists. The canvas stands as a testament to the artist’s desire to express emotional and subjective truths through art, positioning him as a central figure in the development of modern painting. This key Post-Impressionist work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. While the original oil painting resides in Washington D.C., the widespread impact of Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven means high-resolution prints are frequently available for study through public domain collections.