Impressionism, locations

where the ‘impressionists’ did paint:

Brittany

a topographical overview

 

Introduction:
The ‘impressionists’ and other landscapists did paint at several places in the Brittany penninsula, namely along the coast. We will mention the most important locations, starting north-east in Saint-Anne, following the coastline and ending south-east in Pénestin. So now and then we will go more land inward.
Note: At some places the ‘impressionists’ and others made so many paintings that you will be directed to a seperate page.

Saint-Anne:
Saint-Anne lies 250km south(-west) of Le Havre and 325km west of Paris.

Saint-Malo:
Saint-Malo lies 28km west of Saint-Anne. Paul Signac painted here in 1931.

Dinard:
Dinard lies lies at the opposite (west) site of the estuary of La Rance.

Saint-Briac-sur-Mer:
Paul Signac painted in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer  in 1885 and in 1890 several of these works were exhibited at the 8th ‘impressionist’ exposition in 1886 (=8IE-1886) and several at the 8th exposition of Les XX in 1891 (=8XX-1891). Emile Bernard painted here in 1887 and 1888 in a style called Cloisonnism and Synthetism.

Saint-Brieuc:
Saint-Brieuc (iR3) lies 95km west of Saint-Anne. It is the capital of the department Côtes d’Armor (formerly Côtes du Nord) (iR3; iR9). At a regional exhibition in 1891 two paintings of Monet were exhibited here.

Plouézec / Pouldu:
Plouézec lies 36km north-west of Saint-Brieuc. In 1889 and 1890 the following artists met in Pouldu, which is part of Plouézec: Gauguin, and post-impressionists like Laval, Meyer de Haan, Charles Filliger, Sérusier and Seguin.

Lannion:
Lannion lies 160km west of Saint-Anne.

Morlaix:
Morlaix lies 178km west of Saint-Anne and 85km west of Saint-Brieuc. Morlaix has a Musée des Beaux-Arts, which helds works of Boudin and J.F. Raffaëlli. It is also called Musée des Jacobins and also contains works from the collection of the art-critic Gustave Geffroy (see collection).

Brest:
Brest lies 237km west of Saint-Anne. Brest (iR3) is the largest city in the department Finistère (iR3). Brest has a Musée des Beaux-Arts (M213).

Camaret-sur-Mer:
Camaret-sur-Mer lies south of Brest at the southern bank of the Rade de Brest (iR3). Boudin painted here in 1872 using a more pre-impressionist style with sub-dued colours. Luce painted here in 1894 using bright colours and a neo-impressionist painting style.

Douarnenez:
Douarnenez lies 70km south of Brest. Boudin painted here his painting ‘Pardon de Sainte-Anne-la-Palud’ which was exhibited at the Salon (=S) of 1859. Redon once depicted a street in Douarnenez.

Quimper:
Quimper lies 22km east of Douarnenez. Quimper is the capital of the department Finistère (iR3). Quimper has a Musée des Beaux-Arts (M208). Boudin painted the harbour, so did (quite identical) Maureau and later Signac, all depicting the river Odet and the towers of the cathedral of Saint-Corentin. Auguste Ottin made for this cathedral a statue. Later his son, Léon Ottin was involved in the restauration of the stained-glass windows.

 

Concarneau:
Concarneau lies 22km east-south of Quimper. In 1887 Émile Schuffenecker painted here.  Signac made several pictures here in 1891, partly exhibited at the 9th exposition of Les XX in 1892.

Pont-Aven:
Pont-Aven lies more land inward, 35km south-east of Quimper and 14km east of Concarneau. Pont-Aven is famous for the School of Pont-Aven, in which Paul Gauguin had a leading role. Around 1888/08/13 Émile Bernard arrived in Pont-Aven and he and Gauguin spent all there time together. Meanwhile they had an intense correspondence with Vincent van Gogh. In this exchange of ideas Emile Bernard and Gauguin developed the ‘synthetic symbolism’, in short Synthetism, in which they absorbed the principles of Cloisonnism.
Renoir did recommend Pont-Aven and it’s surroudings to Murer in an undated letter (R218,no81). Another letter he wrote from Pont-Aven (R218,no.78/72). Pont-Aven has a Musée des Beaux-Arts (M216).

Ros-Bras:
Ros-Bras is a harbour at the Aven, an estuary. It lies south of Pont-Aven and is now part of Riec-sur-Bélon. In 1866 Berthe Morisot painted here.

Quimperlé:
Quimperlé lies more land inward, 47km east of Quimper.

Lorient:
Lorient lies 68km east-south of Quimper.

Vannes:
Vannes (iR3) lies 115km east-south of Quimper. It is the capital of the department Morbihan (iR3; iR9)

Belle-Île:
Belle-Île-en-Mer is an island south-west of Vannes. Claude Monet stayed here in 1886 from the 15th of September till the 25th of November. Gustave Geffroy held him company (R22,no1084+1085).

Pénestin:
Pénestin lies in the outer south-east coast of Brittany, 162km east-south of Quimper.

Ploërmel:
Ploërmel (iR3) lies 64km north of Pénestin and 94km south of Saint-Malo (iR9). Léon Ottin was involved in the restauration of the stained-glass windows of the Saint-Armel church in Ploërmel (iR9).

Rennes:
Rennes is the capital of the department Ille-et-Vilaine (iR3). It lies 62km east(-north) of Ploërmel and 61km south of Saint-Anne. Rennes has a Musée des Beaux-Arts (M210).

Vitré:
Vitré (iR3) lies 39km east of Rennes. Ludovic Piette depicted the castle of Vitré (iR9; iR3).

 

Sources:
My main sources are Wildenstein (R22). For the locations I used Google maps (iR9). For background information on the places I mostly used WikiPedia (iR3).
See links for other general references (=R), internet sites (=iR) and musea (=M). For other additional references (=aR) see below. See links for practical hints and abbreviations and for the subscription of the paintings.

Further readings:
x

Additional references (=aRx):

1. en.wikipedia.org//brittany (page on the cultural history of Brittany; =iR3)
2. en.wikipedia.org//brittany_administrative (page on the administrative region Brittany; =iR3)
3. x

 

Recommanded citation: “Impressionism, locations where the ‘impressionists’ did paint: Brittany. Last modified 2025/02/16. https://www.impressionism.nl/brittany/”

 

Note: additional info and pictures will follow.