ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905)
BRITTANY PEASANTS
Estimate: £600 - £900
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Day Sale | Lots 1-110 | Thursday 05 June from 2pm
Description
Signed, inscribed and dated 1897 verso, oil on unstretched canvas
Dimensions
20cm x 25.5cm (8in x 10in)
Footnote
Following his studies at the Académie Julian in Paris, Robert Brough spent a period working in Brittany, inspired by the formative effect this locale had had on the work of the artist Paul Gauguin. Brough was charmed by the traditional way of life of the Breton people and by the distinctive quality of light and vivid colouring of the landscape.
Both Gauguin and Brough implemented the ‘Synthetist' style: flat planes of harmonious colour and rhythmic composition over more naturalistic representation. Brough’s Brittany work firmly acknowledges Syntheticism but is tempered by an observational grounding, owing to his fascination with Breton lives and customs. His paintings from this period constitute a sensitive record of a traditional people, rendered with an innovatively modern, almost post-Impressionist eye.