Day Trips – Pont Aven

"I love Brittany. Here I discover the wild, the savage. When my clogs fall upon its granite soil, I hear the dull, deafening and powerful sound I seek in my painting."

It was in 1886, that Paul Gauguin used these terms to explain the spell that Brittany cast upon the group of painters who had come from all over the world to invade Pont Aven. Perhaps more than his paintings, it was Gauguin's strong personality that first held the group together. Their works from the "Pont Aven school," (also known as "cloisonisme" or "synthetisme)" were precursors of "fauvisme" and featured large colored surfaces themselves outlined in contrasting shades. Ironically enough, it was not Soho, Chelsea or Monmartre but rather Brittany, with its druidic past, strong religious traditions and feudal remnants that provided the catalyst for such unprecedented modernism. Today, Pont Aven remains a focal point for contemporary art in Brittany.