Painting

Inspiring artists

Gauguin springs immediately to mind when considering how Brittany has inspired artists. Many more before and after him were moved by Breton landscapes, seascapes and traditions, from Monet on Belle-ÃŽle to Picasso in Dinard. Visit the arts museums around Brittany, but also look out for the tourist art trails set up for you to follow across the countryside or along the coast.

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Classic art stops 

Brittany’s big cities have fascinating fine arts museums, none richer than Rennes’s, which covers the range of movements down the ages. As to Brest, it holds an engrossing array of marine paintings, while Quimper’s collection of Breton scenes and legends is especially strong. St-Malo, Morlaix and Vannes also boast extensive fine arts collections. The odd grand house conceals artistic finds, such as the Manoir de Kérazan near Loctudy, or the Château de Rochefort-en-Terre.

The Pont-Aven school 

It’s the gorgeous estuary village of Pont-Aven that attracts the largest number of art pilgrims from around the world, thanks to the ‘school’ of ground-breaking artists who settled there briefly, and at nearby Le Pouldu, in the late 1880s, producing a new, post-Impressionist style. With their bold blocks of colour and flattened surfaces their works had great force. Gauguin and Emile Bernard were the two creative leaders in this style, but many others adopted similar techniques; they’re featured in frequently changing exhibitions at the Musée de Pont-Aven.

On the artists’ trail 

You can follow marked artists’ trails around Brittany, such as that along the Côte d’Emeraude, along the northeast coast, or the Route des Peintres en Cornouaille, in the southwest. Visit Lamballe for Mathurin Méheut’s engrossing, detailed sketches of everyday Breton life and Dinan to see the works of his partner, Jeanne Yvonne-Haffen. Fougères and Le Faouët have particularly charming, specifically regional art museums too.

Did you know ?

Monet was so captivated by the cliffs of Belle-ÃŽle that he painted them almost 40 times !