L'arc-en ciel

L'arc-en-ciel (The Rainbow) by Maxime Maufra from 1901, held in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, presents a Breton landscape transformed by the sudden appearance of a rainbow — one of the most dramatically atmospheric meteorological events a landscape painter could encounter. Maufra was working in the wake of the Pont-Aven circle's interest in Breton landscape and its emotional, spiritual associations, and a rainbow over fields or sea would have carried both naturalistic and symbolic weight. The rainbow also challenged the painter technically: rendering the arc of spectral color across a landscape without the result becoming illustrative or kitschy was a task requiring considerable chromatic confidence. Maufra's Post-Impressionist divided touch was well-suited to the task.

Maufra renders the rainbow's arc through a sequence of heightened, divided color strokes that maintain the painting's overall tonal coherence while marking the spectral phenomenon above the landscape. His treatment of the sky and ground beneath the arc uses contrasting warm and cool passages to maximize atmospheric drama.