One of the most renown sandy beaches in all of France is the Finistere stretch from Beg-Meil to Mousterlin on the Brittany Coast. The pristine and "wild" Brittany Coast became a resort destination for the cosmopolitan citizens of Paris in the 19TH Century. The Pont Aven region experienced the arrival of the Impressionists in the 1880s and drew the best, including Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin and Maxime Maufra.
Maufra's has discovered an unpopulated moment of quiet to observe and paint the ocean's coast. Beautiful and stoically, the semaphore signaling station at the Beg-Moil beach holds a solitary, dutiful presence over the wind-swept beach. Radiant skies hold swirled colorful flourishes above the distant yachtsmen. The dunes, terra formed by the ever-present cool wind of the Brittany Coast, have softly suggestive plants in the color variations holding fast against the breeze and the surf break, with a variation of heavy application of oil and brush strokes by artist.
As much as Maufra and the other artists of Pont Aven made the region popular, the land itself had influences on their art and lives, and they threw themselves into their headlong passion for painting its natural settings. Few did it as well as Maufra, and this is an excellent example of ability to blend softly the power and beauty of nature.
