The Tailor's Catechism "galerie Des Moeurs, Usages Et Costumes Des Bretons De l'Armorique"

Le catéchisme du tailleur - Etching 18 x 23 cm 1808 Collection "Galerie des moeurs, usages et costumes des Bretons de l'Armorique", Olivier Perrin (del et sculp.) and L. Mareschal (text), Paris : L.-P. Dubray, Imprimeur de l'Académie Celtique, 1808 (Some plates preserved at B.N and Musée de Rennes) - Print

L. Mareschal describes this scene as follows: "A tailor whose beard and graying hair attest that he is past fifty, gravely seated on a wooden bench, his horn snuffbox at his side, his back leaning against the threshing-floor barn, and his right leg bent in a situation usual to people of his profession, sees lined up around him a troop of young boys and girls to whom he has taken on the task of teaching the first elements of the faith. In one hand, he holds the religious booklet, and in the other, a long white stick, long enough to reach the most distant of his listeners, to awaken their attention or right their wrongs. We see him at the moment when he has just used it at Corentin's expense. Our mischievous fellow, far from being respectful and attentive to the gospel, has thrown a handful of earth in the face of a young girl kneeling a short distance away. This trait of irreverence and malice did not escape the serious catechist's notice, and punishment followed closely on the heels of offence; he just dropped his hard-on quite heavily on the ears of our hero, to whom anger and pain made an ugly grimace... Not far away, grandfather Yvon, a stranger to the scene and half-reclining on straw, devoutly recites his rosary; near him, children still too young to benefit from the tailor's pious instruction, amuse themselves by doing a sort of somersault named among them "lamm chouk-hé-benn (jump from back to head)".
Exhibition

• Childhood in Brittany in the 19th century Musée départemental breton -Quimper 23/06/1995 01/10/1995 Exhibition notes "L'Enfance en Bretagne au XIXe siècle" - Quimper, Musée départemental breton, June 23 - October 1, 1995

• L'Enfance en Bretagne Musée des beaux-arts de Vannes (anciennementMusée de la Cohue) 11/05/1996 13/10/1996 Exhibition notes "L'Enfance en Bretagne", Vannes - Musée de la Cohue, 11 mai-13 octobre 1996

NomPERRIN

PrénomOlivier

Biographie(Rostrenen, 1761 - Quimper, 1832)
One of the first, if not the first, painter of Brittany. He studiedin Rennes, then in Paris, in Doyen's studio. TheRevolution deprived him of his support, resulting in his return tofirst to Landerneau; he married and settled in Quimper, where he taught where he taught drawing, leading a very secluded life. His work isdouble, apart from rare religious subjects such as the church in Rostrenen: on the one hand, he painted a series of canvases inspired bydaily life in the Quimper region, simply observed in a spiritin a spirit not unlike that of 17th-century Flemish painters.On the other hand, he worked on two large series of engravings,one foreign to Brittany, "La Galerie chronologique et pittoreque de l'histoire one foreign to Brittany, "La Galerie chronologique et pittoreque de l'histoire ancienne", the other deeply Breton, followingCorentin, a Cornouaille peasant, from birth to death, through the customsthrough the customs, work and happy or sad episodes of his life.of his life. Perrin accumulated notes and sketches, and prepared numerous plates, but the first edition, in 1808, was a failure, and it was only after his death that his sonhis son published this "Galerie bretonne" (120 plates) in 1835-1836.The painted and engraved works form an exceptionally important documentthe Breton countryside in the early 19th century.century.
(DELOUCHE D., Peintres de la Bretagne, p.334)