Two Breton Girls by the Sea

Gauguin's 1889 painting of two Breton girls by the sea belongs to his final concentrated engagement with Brittany before departing for Tahiti. The image of local girls on a coast carries the thematic weight his Breton work always contained — primitive authenticity, connection to earth and sea, a pre-modern spirituality he found in the Celtic countryside. The flat, simplified rendering of the figures and their placement against the sea reflects the fully developed Cloisonnist approach he had worked through over the previous two years. This painting anticipates the compositional approach he would use in his great Tahitian works of the 1890s.

The two figures are rendered with the simplified, flat color treatment and strong outlining characteristic of Gauguin's mature Cloisonnist style. The sea behind them provides a simplified horizontal backdrop. The palette uses the muted blues, greens, and grays of the Breton coast, the figures' clothing providing darker, more defined areas within the composition.