Paul Gauguin

Picturesque Brittany

A port straight out of a picture book: the fishing village of Doëlan, on the south coast of Brittany.

(Bild: FLY HD)

In the footsteps of the painter Paul Gauguin, who moved to the European "end of the world" at the end of the 19th century - and revolutionized the art world there with new impulses!

It is a picturesque corner of the world in the truest sense of the word where Paul Gauguin, born in Paris on June 7, 1848, left his lucrative life as a stockbroker with his wife and children to seek his artistic fortune. In France's westernmost continental département, the so-called "Finistère" (Finis terrae, end of the world) in the region of Brittany, where many painters found what they were looking for in their restless search for new, exotic motifs at the end of the 19th century.

But it was not only the special light and the unbuilt, unindustrialized landscape around the small town of Pont-Aven, once 14 hours by train from the vibrant capital of Paris, that attracted Gauguin, Émile Bernard and Paul Sérusier: "It was also much cheaper to live and work here," explains Evelyn Benesch from Kunstforum Wien, who is curating the new exhibition "Gauguin - Unexpected" (from 3. October). The first major retrospective in Austria since 1960, it follows Gauguin from his beginnings as a post-impressionist to his pioneering role as one of the fathers of modernism.

Paul Gauguin (* June 7, 1848 in Paris; † May 8, 1903 in Atuona on Hiva Oa, French Polynesia).

(Bild: Getty Images/Corbis via Getty Images)

In Pont-Aven, Paul Gauguin set new and above all radical standards, explains Benesch. He experimented with bright, bold colors and also infected his colleagues with the pioneering style that would later go down in art history books as the "School of Pont-Aven" and usher in Symbolism.

INFO

The best place to follow in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin is from Brest to Pont-Aven in the "City of Painters"

Tips: Hotel La Pension du Moulin, Restaurant Rosmadec le Moulin, Doëlan - Le Poldou: Gauguin Museum "Maison Marie Henry", a large museum will open in June 2025

ALL INFORMATION ABOUT THE DESTINATIONS

• www.deconcarneauapontaven.com
• www.quimper-tourisme.bzh
• www.toutcommenceenfinistere.com/download-our-maps-and-guides
• Quimperlé les rias, naturally inspiring! - Quimperlé les Rias | Quimperlé les Rias

Exhibition: "Gauguin - Unexpected" from October 3 - Info: www.kunstforumwien.at

The picturesque community of 2,800 people on the banks of the River Aven exploits this fact at every turn. The picturesque alleyways around the Gloanec guesthouse, which served as a hostel and creative meeting place for the painters, are lined with galleries selling almost everything from blotting to fine etchings. The flavors are not always on point - in stark contrast to the Michelin-starred restaurant Rosmadec le Moulin, where chef Sébastien Martinez paints a flavorful homage to Gauguin's famous South Seas paintings on the plates with a beautiful green-peppery mussel dish bathed in buttermilk.

Gauguin lived in the Pension Gloanec in Pont-Aven.

(Bild: alexandre lamoureux)

During the subsequent digestive walk, you then stroll along the river through the "Bois d'Amour", where Gauguin gave his painter friend Sérusier a pioneering painting lesson, from which his painting "The Talisman" emerged - up to the chapel of Trémalo, whose crucifix inspired Gauguin to create his famous yellow Christ, which can be found in several of his paintings.

In Gauguin's footsteps along the "Painters' Path"

(Bild: Emmanuel Berthier)

On the coast lined with rugged cliffs and bright white sandy beaches around the picturesque village of Doëlan with its picture-book harbour guarded by striped lighthouses, colourful fishing boats and the typical whitewashed Breton stone houses, Gauguin, who later sought a supposed "exotic paradise" in the South Seas, found other places that he captured on canvas.

Fresh oysters at Damien Struillou

(Bild: LUDYS)

And plenty of culinary delicacies, preferably in the form of fresh oysters, as can be found at the family business Huitres Morvan in Merrien. "No", laughs junior manager Damien Struillou, "he doesn't know if Gauguin ate any oysters and how many", as he cracks open his Belon oysters, typical of the region, for us to taste. But that Gauguin attracts culture enthusiasts from all over the world to Brittany, who set off on the "Chemin des Peintres", the painters' path, to inhale that incomparable atmosphere at the end of the world.