Forest Interior (Sous-Bois)

Painted in 1884 during an early Pont-Aven period, this forest interior reflects Gauguin's interest in the ancient, enclosed spaces of Breton woodland — a subject with deep associations with Celtic myth and mystery in the French imagination. The dense canopy of a forest interior removes the painter from the open sky and horizon that characterise much landscape painting, creating an intimate, enclosed world. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston holds this early canvas, which shows Gauguin before his mature Synthetist development.

The forest is rendered with the Impressionist-influenced handling of the early-to-mid 1880s — varied, responsive brushwork building the dense canopy through layered colour marks. The palette is green-dominated, the light filtering through foliage creating the characteristic dappled effect of woodland painting in the Impressionist tradition. The spatial depth of the forest interior is created through tonal recession rather than flat colour zones.