The flush of full color comes forth from this bright and vibrant painting by impressionist Henry Moret. While the island and coastal waters are rhythmically paced and the hillsides meet in a centered ravine, dropping to the rocky coastline, a sailing yawl cuts a nice silhouette on the Atlantic waters. Moret nicely captures the resulting confluence of the direction of the tide in contrast to the wind in the sails, and the sparse and lofty clouds. His brushwork echoes that of the earlier Impressionism of Claude Monet, while the sky is indicative of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. This early painting ranks high in Moret's collective output.
Moret's artistic dedication to a sincere and faithful representation of the landscapes, seascapes, and people of Brittany resulted in a very rich and distinctive body of work. His oeuvre clearly illustrates his love and respect for the Breton culture, and his interminable fascination with the granite cliffs, the wind-blown grasses on seaside hills, and the various moods of the seas and skies of Brittany.
The present work, Port Louis, painted in 1895, is a truly exceptional early example of Moret's distinctive style. Port Louis is located across the bay from the seaport of Lorient on the southern coast of Brittany, the region in which the majority of Moret's early works were executed. This picturesque view is from the coast bordering the Promenade Henri-François Bufffet, looking southward toward the Ile aux Souris, with the coastline of the G Inchesvres peninsula and the Pointe de G Inchesvres visible on the distant horizon. Port Louis beautifully displays the distinctive palette, painterly technique, and compositional elements that are quintessential qualities of Moret's finest works from this important period of his oeuvre.
Employing the vibrant greens, rich blues, and golden yellows that characterize his signature palette from this period, Moret captures an incredible sense of luminosity and vitality in this simple view of the Breton coast. The high horizon line, strong diagonals, and solid structure of the composition are also key elements of Moret's work from this period. Although traces of his earlier Synthetist style can be seen in this work, such as the influence of Japonisme in the decorative treatment of the clouds and sky, Port Louis is a beautiful example of Moret's transition to a much thicker and more fluid application of paint in his compositions, a defining characteristic of his later, more purely impressionistic works.
In this work Moret has masterfully captured the transparency and movement of the sea, and the intensity of the sunlight penetrating through the broken clouds. Port Louis beautifully illustrates the raw natural beauty of the Breton coast, and it is an exceptional example of Moret's distinctive style and artistry. Moret produced some of his most vibrant paintings during this particular period, from the mid to late 1890s, and his intent in this work appears to have a duel focus as both a pure celebration of color and an artistic representation of nature.
Port Louis was exhibited at La Libre Esthétique in 1896, the important avant-garde artists' association in Brussels, and was one of the first of Moret's works to be purchased by Paul Durand-Ruel, the champion of the Impressionists and the most important Parisian art dealer of the Impressionist era. It should also be noted that the provenance of the present work links it directly to the personal collection of the Durand-Ruel family, the descendants of Paul Durand-Ruel. Mme Jean d'Alayer, born Marie-Louise Durand-Ruel in 1897, was the daughter of Joseph Durand-Ruel, the eldest son of Paul Durand-Ruel. Joseph assumed directorship of both the Paris and New York branches of the Durand-Ruel galleries upon his father's retirement in 1913. The personal collection of Durand-Ruel contained masterpieces by all of the key members of the Impressionist group, including Cassatt, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley, as well as numerous works by many other artists that he represented or admired.
