Ernest Guerin Triptych Brittany The Forgiveness Of Tronoen

Ernest Guérin born September 15, 1887 in Rennes and died May 10, 1952 in Quiberon is a French painter renowned for his Breton paintings, but who was also an orientalist painter with some Tunisian works Ernest Guérin studied at the School of Fine Arts in Rennes in the workshops of Félix Lafond (1850-1917) and Jules Ronsin before coming to Paris and then working as a draftsman with the architect Edmond Gemain in Vannes. Original artist, he practices with the same happiness the gouache, the watercolor, the illumination and takes part in many living rooms. His reputation grew rapidly through the character of his work, which depicted the harshness of life, the customs of Breton peasants, the traditional religious festivals and the wild character of Brittany through its landscapes, its climate and its atmospheres. Alongside Mathurin Méheut, he bears witness to the traditions of village life and the influence of religious beliefs on everyday life. He was the friend of Anatole Le Braz. He married Renée Leboux in 1913. He benefited from several purchases from the State. Ernest Guérin's painting is marked by a late influence of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Having studied the techniques of medieval illumination, he also drew inspiration from them in his work. At the end of his life, his aesthetic turned to a more “Taoist” vision of the pictorial universe. His landscapes reflect an art inspired by Japanese and Chinese works, mixing small characters and oppressive horizons that occupy the entire composition. Forgotten after the Second World War, the Rennes Museum of Fine Arts rediscovered him with a retrospective exhibition of his work co-organized with the Breton Departmental Museum of Quimper in 2001 and 2002. A hundred works were presented during the summer of 2006 in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer on the occasion of the 11th Art Festival.