La Trinité-sur-mer

A beautiful watercolor and gouache by Edouard Doigneau (Nemours 1865–Paris 1954) depicting a view of La Trinité (Morbihan) and the Kerispert Bridge in the mid-20th century.

Born in Nemours in 1865, Edouard Doigneau entered the École Polytechnique in 1885. In 1900, he decided to become a painter and enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris, where his teachers included Jules Lefebvre (1834–1912) and Tony Robert-Fleury (1837–1911). After becoming a member of the Artistes Français, he participated in numerous exhibitions in Paris. Following World War I, during which he was seriously wounded, he resumed his artistic activities and became a tireless traveler. He traveled throughout France (Fontainebleau, Brittany, the Camargue, the banks of the Loire), as well as Spain and North Africa. A regionalist at heart, he enjoyed sketching picturesque scenes from Brittany or landscapes of Provence in his sketchbooks. However, his views of Morocco and Algeria also earned him a place among the Orientalists. After a long artistic career, he died in Paris in 1954. Our view of La Trinité is a work from the end of his career, dating from around 1945. Indeed, one can see that the central section of the Kerispert Bridge over the Crac’h River is missing. It was destroyed by the Germans on August 8, 1944.