Gauguin's Brittany

Suspended in front of Summer bleached fields, a corrupted French landscape, trees of an orange fire, the figure of a crucified Christ, a startling sickly yellow, a scene of blank expressionless women gather at his feet. The obscure colouring, the bright summer's landscape, under an overcast sky, the enigmatic figure in the background, the more than overt religious reference, these all contribute to the Gauguin painting "The Yellow Christ"'s (1888) reputation as one of the early masterpieces of the symbolist movement.

The masterpiece was born in Pont-Aven Brittany, where Gauguin frequently sojourned, among the many artists who sought out the area, where Gauguin seemed to recolour himself as an artist, with the bright pastel colours synonymous with the primitivist movement that Gauguin has become regarded as heralding in.