Jean Jacques Baptiste Brunet (1849-1917) - Brittany (allegory)

Oil on canvas. Original canvas. Signed and dated. Reduced version of a similar work from 1908 held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper, dimensions: 247 x 177 cm, inventory number: 2013-0-39. This striking Symbolist-inspired canvas, signed by the renowned artist Jean Brunet, is a reduced version of his magnificent allegory of the Breton nation from 1908, held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper. A young girl, in a powerful and dramatic gesture, kneels before the ocean to lay a wreath of flowers in gratitude for the blessings received and in remembrance of those swept away by the waves of the vast Atlantic. This painting serves both as a basis for the composition of a theme dear to the Breton fervor that Gauguin infused into late 19th-century French art, transforming the ancient Celtic kingdom into a major source of inspiration for an entire generation of European artists, and as a starting point for the representation of a powerful and decadent femininity. Jean Jacques Baptiste Brunet was a French painter whose work embodied the pinnacle of late 19th-century academic virtuosity. His precocious talent led him to study at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Poitiers, before settling in the world's artistic capital in 1872 to become a pupil of monumental figures such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Gustave Boulanger. This exceptional heritage conferred upon him unparalleled technical mastery, which Brunet displayed with distinction from 1876 onwards at the Salon des Artistes Français. His canvases, ranging from poignant peasant scenes to complex religious and romantic compositions, testify not only to an impeccable fidelity to drawing, but also to a rare ability to confer a sublime and narrative dimension upon his subjects, thus securing his place as a master who extended the grandeur of classical art to the dawn of the 20th century.- Dimensions of the image without frame: 66 x 82 cm / 82 x 98 cm with a magnificent eclectic-inspired gold frame.