La Fenaison en Bretagne (recto) ; Bouquet de fleurs devant une fenêtre ouverte sur la mer (verso)

La Fenaison en Bretagne (Haymaking in Brittany, 1888) at the Musée d'Orsay belongs to the crucial year when Gauguin was developing Synthetism alongside Émile Bernard. The haymaking subject — workers in a field, the rhythmic labor of harvest — connected his Breton observation to the Barbizon and Realist tradition of agricultural labor as worthy subject matter for serious painting. His treatment was already departing from naturalistic observation: the figures and field rendered through his developing flat color zones and bold outlines. The verso of this canvas — Bouquet de fleurs devant une fenêtre ouverte sur la mer (Flowers before an open window facing the sea) — creates an unusual double-sided work that documents the flexibility of his painting practice in this period. The Orsay's possession of this double-sided canvas alongside several other major 1888 Gauguins makes 1888 the best-documented year of his Breton work in any single institution.

The Brittany haymaking scene shows Gauguin moving toward the bold, simplified forms and anti-naturalistic color of his mature Synthetist approach — the haystacks rendered as solid chromatic masses rather than atmospheric impressions, the figures integrated into the design with decorative flatness. His brushwork is more deliberate and structured than the Impressionists he was departing from.