Henry MORET (Cherbourg 1856 - Paris 1913) Lot n° 61

Peasant landscape, 1908 Original oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm Signed lower right and dated H Moret 1908 H: 59 x W: 72 cm Provenance: Family collection: Family collection, bought in Deauville in 1938 A landscape painter, Henry Moret had a real passion for the sea and its coastlines. Like his fellow artists of the late 19th century, Moret traveled to Brittany, where he produced his first masterpiece, La Plage de Loqueltaz à marée basse (Loqueltaz Beach at Low Tide) in 1880. While the members of the synthétisme movement traveled to Brittany in search of authenticity and picturesqueness to capture on canvas, Henry Moret cultivated the simple pleasure of strolling and contemplating the horizon, the light variations in the green meadows and on the ocean. Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Brittany embodied the possibility of exploring a land untouched by contemporary life, rich in history, culture, folklore and legends. It exudes an almost savage perfume, an impression of the unknown that arouses the curiosity of many European painters, such as Gauguin and his followers from the Pont-Aven School. For Impressionists such as Cézanne, Brittany was an ideal place to study atmospheric changes and experiment with painting.