"One could see, outlined into the far distance, one beyond the other, all the indentations of the coast, the land of Brittany ended in denticulated points which stretched out into the tranquil emptiness of the waters. In the foreground, rocks riddles its surface; but beyond, nothing disturbed its mirror-like polish; it gave out a scarcely perceptible caressing noise, soft and immense, which ascended from the depth of all the bays. And the distances were so calm, the depths so still! The great blue emptiness, the tomb of the Gaoses, preserved in impenetrable mystery." - Pierre Loti, from Pecheurs d'Islande (1886), a novel of the fishers of Paimpol.
Jutting out into the Atlantic, surrounded on three sides by water, Brittany is the westernmost province of France. The ocean is never more than sixty miles away but local residents only took up swimming when the tourists brought the pastime with them after W
orld War I.
The Breton region was the last to cede sovereignty to the French monarchy under Francis I in 1532, and to be brought into conformity with the national government in the late 19th century. This remote corner of France was barely touched by Roman occupation, but the Breton Celts came to stay some two thousand years ago, at least. They built the megaliths, the mounded or standing stones that functioned as burial vaults and astronomical guides. Menhirs, the standing stones, and trees were believed to contain sacred energies and might even be the spirits of the dead, turned to stone.
Many legends attach to this ancient land. Paimpont in eastern Brittany is though t to be the Broceliade of Arthurian tales, where the King sent his men into the forest in search of the Holy Grail. Tristan and Isolde consummated their great love here. And on a coastal shelf submerged beneath the waves of the Bay of Douarnenez lies the City of Ys, reputed to be the most beautiful city on earth. Modern science has confirmed that the level of the ocean around the Bay was some fifty meters lower during the last Ice Age. 
The railroads began bringing vacationers en masse to Brittany in the 1860s, including dozens of painters eager to try out the new plein air style. It helped the region's popularity that Claude Monet was born in nearby Le Havre and that, after he became famous, he purchased a home at Giverney in his native Normandy.
Brittany possessed the attraction of being even more remote and therefore more romantic than Normandy - the wild west of France. Balzac, who vacationed there in the 1840s, wrote that it was unnecessary to visit America to see savages. "The Redskins of Fenimore Cooper are here. " he declared, giving his estimate of Breton civilization. Madame de Sevigne (1626-1678) had maintained a country retreat at Les Rochers, near Vitre, immortalized in her writings.
The English poet Ernest Dowson was smitten on his visit in 1899, penning In A Breton Cemetery.
"And now night falls,
Me, tempest-tost, and driven from pillar to post,
A poor worn ghost,
The quiet pasture calls;
And dear dead people with pale hands
Beckon me to their lands."
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette spent summers at Villa la Gaimorais, on the northern coast between St. Malo and Cancale, where she wrote Le Ble en herbe (1923), translated into English by Roger Senhouse as Ripening Seed. As this story of adolescent love and awakening sexuality follows two teenagers, Vinca and Phil, through the summer. the Breton countryside becomes a third participant, its presence palpable.
"All that could be seen through the window was the westerly weather of August, bringing rain in its wake. The earth came to an abrupt end out there, on the brink of the links. One more squall, one more upheaval of the great, grey field furrowed with paralell ridges of foam, and the house must surely float away like the ark."
More recently, Bodil Malmsten, a Swedish author who moved to Finistere in 2000, published a novel The Price Of Water in Finistere (London, Harvil Press: 2001). In it, Malmsten explains her move from Sweden at midlife, in the words of her protagonist: "In the same way that there's a partner for every person, there's a place...My Place lies where the land comes to an end in Europe - fin de terres - finis terae - finistere."
On the southern coast, the quiet towns of Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu were the largest artist colonies, thanks to Paul Gauguin who who settled into the Pension Marie-Jeanne Gloane in 1886. Henri Riviere (1864-1951), a Montmartre native considered by many to be the ultimate Parisian, made his first Breton vacation in1886 with his brother at Saint-Briac. His beautiful lithographs and woodblock prints appeared in several successful folios (Le beau pays de Bretagne, Le paysages Bretons, Les apsects de la nature, etc.).
As always,
click on the images for details on the artists, titles of works, and sources.














He designed three series of art postcards for the firm of Dietrich & Cie: Les Elements (1898), illustrating the forces of nature; La Mer, on the sea and its presence in Belgian life, particularl

was influenced by his favorite works by fellow artists Georges Lemmen 91865-1916) and Henri Meunier (1873-1922). The Combaz cover for a Catholic magazine, La Durendal (1898) obviously borrows the color scheme and the wave pattern from Georges Lemmens' 1891 poster for Les XX.





