Landscape with Mill

Maxime Maufra's Landscape with Mill from around 1900 belongs to his extended engagement with the rural landscapes of Brittany and Normandy that formed the backbone of his Post-Impressionist output. Maufra had worked in Pont-Aven in the early 1890s alongside Gauguin and had absorbed the bold color and simplified form of the Post-Aven school before developing his more personal landscape style. The windmill — a traditional feature of the Breton landscape — provided him with a vertical compositional element against the typically broad, open country he favored. The painting is privately held rather than in a museum collection.

Maufra uses the mill's vertical silhouette as an anchor for a composition that otherwise extends horizontally across the rural landscape. His paint handling is loose and energetic, building the scene with directional strokes that follow the terrain. The palette favors the greens and ochres of Breton agricultural land, with the sky providing tonal contrast.