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Woman in Breton Costume Seated in a Meadow


Study for Breton Women at a Pardon
1887

Medium/Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 41.6 x 32.4 cm (16 3/8 x 12 3/4 in.)
Credit Line Bequest of David P. Kimball in memory of his wife Clara Bertram Kimball
Accession Number23.527
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings

Like his contemporary Jules Breton, Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret was known for his paintings of Breton daily life. In 1886, he began a series of studies and paintings on Breton pardons, a Catholic ceremony where congregants process around the church on the feast day of a patron saint.

This study centers on a woman seated in a bright green landscape wearing traditional Breton clothing, including the distinctive white, winged coiffe or headdress that is accentuated against the black of her dress. Dagnan-Bouveret used rough brushstrokes and strong colors to capture the spirit of rural Breton life.


InscriptionsLower right: P A J DAGNAN-B 1887
ProvenanceDecember 5, 1887, purchased by Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris; July 3, 1889 or September 19, 1889, sold by Boussod, Valadon et Cie. to M. Knoedler and Co., New York (stock no. 6303); October 28, 1889, sold by Knoedler to J. Eastman Chase Gallery, Boston [see note 1], probably for Clara Bertram Kimball (b. 1838 - d. 1920), Boston; by inheritance to her husband, David P. Kimball (b. 1833 - d. 1923), Boston; 1923, bequest of David P. Kimball to the MFA [see note 2]. (Accession Date: November 1, 1923)

NOTES:
[1] As "Bretonne de Face." Getty Provenance Index, Goupil et Cie. Records, PI record no. G-28389 (stock book 12, no. 18898, p. 43), which gives a sale date to Knoedler of July 3, 1889; and M. Knoedler and Co. Records, PI record no K-9982 (stock book 4, no. 6303, p. 116), which gives a purchase date from Boussod, Valadon et Cie. of September 19, 1889. [2] David P. Kimball bequeathed forty paintings to the MFA in memory of his wife, Clara Bertram Kimball. He noted in his will that these were "from the collection made by her and bequeathed to me."