Rue Douarnenez

This 1880 cardboard view of the Rue Douarnenez, in the Breton port town of Douarnenez in Finistère, belongs to the documentary strand of Redon's practice from his early career. Douarnenez, a sardine fishing port on the south coast of Brittany, was beginning to attract Parisian artists in the 1880s as part of the broader colonisation of Brittany by plein-air painters seeking an 'authentic' alternative to the modern city. Redon's Breton street view shows him working as an observational painter, recording the specific character of a provincial French port town at a historical moment just before it became well-known in artistic circles. The cardboard support, the 1880 date, and the Orsay provenance place this firmly within his documentary travel work, predating his fully developed colour method but showing the observational acuity that underlies even his most fantastical subjects.

Oil on cardboard with a direct, location-study quality. The palette is appropriate to a Breton coastal town — cool greys and blues of ocean light, whitewashed walls, the ochres and dark woods of traditional architecture. The handling is relatively economic, capturing the essential character of the street without pursuing finishes detail. The cardboard support encourages a certain painterly directness.