Paul Gauguin - Breton Woman and Goose by the Water 1888

Breton Woman and Goose by the Water 1888
Breton Woman and Goose by the Water
1888 25x39cm oil/canvas
Museum of Fine Arts Saint Petersburg, Florida

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From Museum of Fine Arts Saint Petersburg, Florida:
Gauguin believed that happiness could be found in a life unencumbered by Europe’s restrictive civilization. Drawn to exotic places−Martinique, Brittany, Tahiti, and the Marquesas Islands−and influenced by Japanese woodblocks, he departed from Western artistic tradition and developed a flattened style with emphasis on brilliant color and simplified form. Goose Girl is a perfect example: lacking a horizon line, the vertical arrangement of unrefined brushstrokes direct the eye effortlessly from the bottom of the canvas to the top. Planes of non-naturalistic color emphasize the flat surface. This technique illustrates the move away from representing the illusion of realism toward expression and synthesis of an idea. Gauguin’s debt to Japanese art is evident here.