GAUGUIN, Paul
(b. 1848, Paris, d. 1903, Atuona, Hiva Oa, French Polynesia)

Breton Village in the Snow

1894
Oil on canvas, 62 x 87 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

This work was probably produced at the beginning of 1894, when Gauguin painted another snowscape, Paris in the Snow (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Van Gogh). During his two years in Paris he painted far fewer works than before - large amounts of his time were taken up with organizing his show at Durand-Ruel's and on a number of literary projects. Consequently, what little he did paint was not new in either subject or treatment. This landscape is remarkably similar to those that he had produced during his Impressionist period - the small brush-strokes are quite different from the broad sweeps of colour that characterized his Tahitian works.