Pont-Aven sous la neige

Gauguin's 'Pont-Aven sous la neige' (Pont-Aven in Snow, 1888) captures the Breton village under an unusual condition — snow was rare in the maritime climate of Finistère — creating a subject quite different from his typical summer and autumn Pont-Aven paintings. The snow transformed the familiar landscape: the cobbled streets, the mill buildings, and the river Aven all altered by the white covering that Gauguin would approach with his Synthetist vocabulary. The unusualness of the subject within his Breton work makes it particularly interesting as a document of the village in an exceptional weather event.

Gauguin applies his Synthetist approach to the snow subject — the bold outlines and simplified color areas of his method used to render the flattening effect of snow on the landscape's usual visual complexity. The snow cover eliminates much of the surface texture and color variety that he typically exploited, and his adaptation of his method to this reduced palette of whites, greys, and blues demonstrates the flexibility of his formal approach.