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

Gauguin's La Fenaison en Bretagne (Haymaking in Brittany, 1888) was painted in Pont-Aven, the Breton village that had become a major center of artistic activity and where Gauguin was developing the bold Synthetist style he would bring to full maturity in Tahiti. The reverse side depicting flowers seen through a window represents the duality of his Breton period — the outdoor agricultural labor of peasant life and the domestic interior — as two aspects of the Breton world he was absorbing. The Musée d'Orsay's collection includes this double-sided work as evidence of Gauguin's intense productivity in Brittany before his final break with Europe.

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.