Virginie Demont-breton - Landscape Of The Opal Coast - 1893 - The Sea Near Wissant

THE ARTIST Virginie Demont-Breton was the second woman, after Rosa Bonheur, to be awarded the Legion of Honor. This recognition of an extraordinary career, talent, and commitment took place in 1894, the year after our painting was created. The daughter of Jules Breton, Virginie developed a precocious talent for drawing and participated in the Salon for the first time at the age of 19. She won her first medal there. The following year, she was again honored, and in 1883, the French government acquired her immense painting "The Beach" (Arras, MBA, F/21/7653). In 1893, she exhibited at the Women's Pavilion at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. Taking advantage of her notoriety, Virginie Breton obtained the opening of the doors of the École des Beaux-Arts to women, and the opportunity, new for them, to compete for the Prix de Rome. An equality acquired through hard struggle with her colleague, the sculptor Hélène Bertaux. Virginie Breton married the painter Adrien Demont in 1880. In their villa at Typhonium, they both established the Wissant painters' colony. For several decades, they set up their easels in front of the landscapes of the Opal Coast, inspired by the beautiful and cruel spectacle of the sea, and the life of fishing families. OUR WORK Our painting offers a view of one of these landscapes of the northern coast. It is most likely Cap Gris-Nez near Wissant, where the artist liked to go and paint. A portrait of his daughter Eliane at this location was part of our penultimate catalog. We can also compare our panel to another, of the same format and also representing Cap Gris-Nez, presented at auction in Rouen on March 8, 2025. A mass of dark brown and ochre rocks, covered in places with moss and dark green algae, occupies the entire lower left part of the painting. The shapes are angular, sculptural, reflecting the natural harshness of the northern coast of France. The sea seems calm, punctuated by small waves that lick the rocks. The brushstrokes are nervous, short, to suggest the brightness of the light on the water (especially in the lower right, where the white foam is visible). To the left, the coast extends into green cliffs, slightly misted by sea vapors. The atmospheric treatment gives a harmonious depth to the whole. Something rather rare in Demont-Breton's work, no character appears here: the artist focuses solely on the material, the light and the sensation of the place. Bibliography: - G.Schurr, Dictionary of the Little Masters of the 19th Century - A. Bourrut Lacouture, The Typhonium, in bulletin of the Society of French Art, 1989. (p.277-296). - V. Demont-Breton, The Houses I Have Known, Ed. Aubier Montaigne, 1926-1930