Rustic French Village With Peasants And Grapes. Post-impressionist Painting, Brittany?, C.1900

Rustic French village with peasants and grapes. Post-Impressionist painting, Brittany?, c.1900

Oil on canvas, 72.8 × 89 cm, original stretcher and canvas

French Post-Impressionist painting, dating between the late 19th and early 20th century, depicting a rural village with high slate-roofed houses, characteristic of Brittany. The composition shows peasants engaged in daily tasks with carts and vessels, evoking the authentic simplicity of agricultural life. The subject and setting, while suggestive of Brittany, could also correspond to Normandy, where similar rural architecture and traditions prevailed.

At the turn of the century many French artists were drawn to such villages, attracted by their authenticity, their traditions, and their bond with the land. Brittany naturally recalls Pont-Aven, but other regional centers also inspired paintings attentive to peasant life and rustic architecture.

The painterly manner resonates with the theme: forms are reduced to essential geometries, the roughness of the brushwork emphasizes matter, and from this simplicity arises a poetry of primitivity. The weight of the walls and bodies, the density of surfaces, and the compactness of the volumes translate pictorially the tangible, earthly presence of the rural world.

Excellent condition with patina. Simple but original wooden frame.