Breton Landscape

Jan Verkade (1868-1946) was a Dutch painter known as one of the most important members of the Pont-Aven School and the Nabis, whose Symbolist landscapes make him one of the most distinctive painters of the late 19th-century French avant-garde. Breton Landscape from 1891-92 depicts the Brittany landscape in the Symbolist, boldly patterned manner that distinguishes Verkade's best work from the more naturalistic painting of his contemporaries. The 1891-92 date places this in Verkade's Pont-Aven period, when he was working alongside Paul Gauguin and the other members of the Pont-Aven School and developing the Symbolist manner that would make him one of the most distinctive painters of the Nabis.

Breton Landscape is important in the history of the Pont-Aven School and the Nabis because it demonstrates the Symbolist, boldly patterned manner that Verkade brought to landscape as one of the most distinctive painters of the late 19th-century French avant-garde. Verkade's Symbolist landscapes—combining the bold patterns of the Pont-Aven School with the Symbolist emphasis on spiritual meaning—represent one of the most distinctive traditions in late 19th-century French painting, and the 1891-92 painting shows this tradition in its earliest phase.

Breton Landscape is Verkade's Symbolist Pont-Aven: the Brittany landscape rendered in the boldly patterned manner of one of the most distinctive painters of the Nabis. The 1891-92 painting shows the Pont-Aven influence and Symbolist approach that Verkade developed alongside Gauguin and the other members of the Pont-Aven School.