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Artist or Maker: PAUL SERUSIER (1864-1927)
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Dimensions: 29 by 36 5/8in. 73.7 by 93cm
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Provenance: Property from a Private Collector
Private Collection (sold:
Christie's, New York, May 16, 1990, lot 344)
Acquired at the
above sale by the present owner
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Notes: Literature:
Marla Prather and Charles F. Stuckey, eds., Gauguin,
A Retrospective, New York, 1987, illustrated pl. 42 (attributed to
Paul Gauguin)
Les deux lavandières au bord de la
cascade is one of the imaginative compositions Sérusier completed
in Brittany, where he worked closely with Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard, and
Meyer de Haan, as well as other artists known collectively as the Pont Aven
School. The Breton towns of Pont-Aven and nearby Le Pouldu were unique
for the distinctive culture of the local people and their timeless way of life,
and offered a dramatic contrast to the modernity of Paris at the turn of the
century. Sérusier and his colleagues were fascinated with the simplicity and
rustic beauty of this region and depicted the daily activities of the local
peasants in many of their compositions. The present work, which the artist
executed around 1890 at the height of his involvement with the Pont Aven
group, depicts the tranquil beauty that fascinated these artists during the
early part of the 1890s.
At the time he painted this work, Sérusier
was developing his own aesthetic that celebrated the mysticism of the natural
world. Although greatly influenced by Gauguin, Sérusier's paintings
often surpassed those of the elder artist with their daring abstraction, and the
present composition is an example of this tendency. In this picture, which
was once attributed Gauguin, Sérusier employs the rich palette that was
popular among the artists working in Brittany during this period. The organic
treatment of the sky and the figures, however, is evidence of
Sérusier's own distinctive technique. In the foreground of the picture
he has depicted two laundresses dressed in the typical costume of Breton
peasants. The laundress motif, which was a common theme among the Pont
Aven group, also appears in three other compositions that Sérusier
completed around this time, Les lavandières de Bellangenêt
(Guicheteau no. 56), Les laveuses á la Laita (Guicheteau no.
55), and a study for Les laveuses á la Laita (Guicheteau no.
54). In the present picture, the artist has positioned the women in the center
of his composition, and the curvature of their forms reiterates the undulation
of the surrounding landscape.
A photo certificate from Marcel
Guicheteau was issued October 18, 1989. This work will be included in the
forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by Jacques Spiess.
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