AMSTERDAM.- The Van Gogh Museum has added a characteristic painting by Paul S閞usier (1864-1927) to its important collection of works by contemporaries of Van Gogh. Farm in Brittany (c. 1890), a recent purchase, complements the group of works by the Pont-Aven School. The work has hung on the second floor, where other paintings in this collection are also on display, since 18 September.

Addition to the Pont-Aven Collection
Paul S閞usier is the best-known and most important artist of the Pont-Aven School, save for Paul Gauguin. The Van Gogh Museum has a small but significant collection of works by this French artists’ group, which was active around Pont-Aven, their base in Brittany, between 1886 and 1894. The artists of the Pont-Aven School wanted to capture Brittany’s rugged landscape and simple folk. In this they had much in common with Van Gogh, who also often chose unspoilt countryside as his subject. The museum illustrated the artistic interaction between Van Gogh and the Pont-Aven School with works by Gauguin, 蒻ile Bernard and Meijer de Haan, but it did not have a painting by Paul S閞usier. The Van Gogh Museum is therefore especially pleased with the acquisition of Farm in Brittany, which is very typical of his work.

Farm in Brittany: The Essence of the Landscape
Like other artists in the Pont-Aven School, S閞usier was attracted by the timeless landscape of Brittany. The work the museum has purchased is a fine example of S閞usier’s Breton style, in which he was influenced by the older Gauguin. The sloping meadow with a farmyard, a haystack and a few trees and stones looks primitive. S閞usier did not seek to render the scene realistically, but composed his own harmonious entity. He captured the essence of the landscape with flat shapes in bright colours, surrounded by flowing outlines. The simplicity is further emphasized because the painter left the paint surface matt and unvarnished. After it was purchased, Farm in Brittany was restored and placed in an appropriate frame, reinstating the artist’s original intention.

Van Gogh and S閞usier: Artistic Exchange
Van Gogh was in touch with the artists’ colony in Pont-Aven through his correspondence with Gauguin and Bernard. They sent one another sketches and paintings, and an artistic exchange came into being. As far as we know, Van Gogh never saw a painting by S閞usier. And yet there was an affinity between the two artists. The primitive subject and the reduction of the landscape to its essence was also important to Van Gogh, although he did not go as far as S閞usier in his idealization of reality. S閞usier admired Van Gogh’s work. In 1892 he even produced an ode to the artist in his painting The Haymaker, a Homage to Van Gogh.
Farm in Brittany is a magnificent addition to the Van Gogh Museum’s collection.