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  • Gathering Oysters, Low Tide

  • ca. 1874-1880
  • Edgar Melville Ward (American 1839-1915)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 55.3 x 68.5 cm., 21-7/8 x 27"
  • Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts Purchase with Gift of a Friend of Augustana College, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2003.3.2

Essay by Laura Kurczodyna, Class of 2007

For nearly 200 years, Brittany has been a rich artistic source for inspiration. Paul Gauguin was one of the many artists to escape the busy life of Paris to find solace in the rich and vibrant landscapes, colorful costumes, and traditional way of life in Brittany. American expatriate, Edgar Melville Ward, studied with academic French painter, Thomas Gérôme (a former student of Neoclassicist Jacques Louis David-web gallery 54), along with future American Impressionist, J. Alden Weir. Weir accompanied Ward to Pont-Aven where he painted, Gathering Oysters, Low Tide. The artist colony at Pont-Aven flourished for twenty years before the arrival of Gauguin.

Oyster gathering, or harvesting, was an important job in the inlet called Cancale Harbor in Brittany. The bustle of this activity created a fertile subject for artists. Stylistically, this is a brilliant and visually stimulating painting. There have been many accounts from artists about the illuminated landscape in Brittany. The color is beautiful, ranging from the intense blue-green of the water and sky and the bright red skirt, balanced by the neutral sandy color of the beach. The painting is Realist in style, however the bright colors may reveal an early Impressionist influence. In this painting, the vibrant colors of Brittany's scenery are beautifully captured. Such peasants in their traditional costumes enticed many artists of the time. The eye never wanders from the well-orchestrated composition: the woman on the right is balanced by the other oyster gatherer who is bending down in a circular pattern. One cannot help but wonder, what is the object of the woman's gaze? She seems to be captivated by someone or something in the distance. Perhaps she is weary of her peasant lifestyle and longs for change. One can only speculate, but it is possible that she is dreaming of a more glamorous and exciting city life, ironically, the very life that artists like Ward and Gauguin chose to flee.

Modernist, Henri Matisse later reminisced about his stay in Brittany, "And soon I was seduced by the brilliance of pure colours. I returned from my trip with a passion for the colours of the rainbow" (Delouche). This painting epitomizes those very colors that Matisse (web gallery 166) and so many others experienced and relished while in this region. Artists like Ward longed for the charm and diversity that this timeless environment offered: a place where they could find nature, spirituality and perhaps even themselves.