P
ainted over thirty years after Moret was initially captivated by the dramatic landscapes of the region, Dunes et falaises vers Doëlan sur mer, Bretagne boasts a characteristic vibrancy and claritys
of light. The translucence of the water and the charging motion of the waves are the artist’s primary focus, a moment of atmospheric interplay captured in lively and loose brushstrokes.
Henry Moret’s lifelong attraction to the rugged coastline of Brittany began during his military service there in 1875.
Catherine Puget, a former conservator at the Musée du Pont-Aven, recounts Moret’s devotion to the Brittany coastline:
In effect, Moret anchored himself to Brittany and for 35 years, traveled tirelessly across the region, attentive to both its permanent character and its fleeting elements. As for the man, he isn’t a painter of the Salon; he had a thirst for solitude and for purity
The present work was originally in the collects ion of Margaret Washburn Hunt. The Washburn family was influential in the development of Minneapolis, and Mrs. Washburn Hunt donated works by Renoir, among others, to the Minneapolis Museum of Art upon her death. The present work has been in the same family’s collects ion for three generations, and is now at public auction for the first t.mes in over 30 years.
- Henry Moret, Les Rochers à Quessant
1902, oil on canvas, sold: Replica Shoes 's New York 15 May 1019, lot 106 for 225,000 USD
