Nouveau centre d’interprétation de “Gauguin, l’Atelier du Pouldu”, Bretagne, août 2025.

Paul Serusier, 1890, “Melancholia, or Breton Eve”

My fourth gouache is a study of the 1890 painting Fisherman on the Laita by Paul Sérusier. I was immediately taken by this work the first time I saw it — something about his unusual colour choices and his simplification into graphic shapes. I decided to work from a smaller-than-necessary reproduction of the work, so that fine details would drop out and the shapes would grow flatter and simpler — emphasizing the aspects that attracted me. It felt like a good learning experience for me.

Paul Sérusier, The Harvest of Buckwheat, 1899, detail