Arthur Gué – Seven Studies Of Breton Costume In Vannes, 1908

Oil on canvas, 38 × 55 cm (height × width), unframed.
French school, Vannes, October 1908.
From the artist’s studio.
The reverse of the canvas is stamped ‘10 P’, indicating the standard French landscape format Paysage No. 10. The stretcher bears a handwritten inscription and a circular stamp with an anchor.
Arthur Gué (born in Rochefort in 1857, died in 1916) was a French landscape painter and watercolourist. He studied with Luigi Loir in Paris and exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1906 to 1912. He also painted the Place des Lices, the market square in Vannes. In these studies, he focuses on women in everyday dress, observing how their white caps and colourful shawls vary and how they carry their baskets.
Five figures are arranged along one edge of the canvas, with two more painted upside down along the opposite edge. The layout recalls a sketchbook page. By turning the canvas around, Gué could use the remaining space to add further studies, bringing together his observations of local dress on a single canvas.
Condition — Minor wear along the edges.