Ferdinand du Puigaudeau

Ferdinand du Puigaudeau
French 1864-1930


Ferdinand du Puigadeau was born in 1864 in Nantes. He studied without a master, travelling instead to Rome, Venice and Florence early in his life. He came back to France in 1888 to travel then to Pont-Aven, where he encountered Paul Gauguin.

He later journeyed to Africa, Germany and Switzerland, and obtained a scholarship to visit Sweden. He returned again to Bretagne, where he stayed and worked for the next 30 years. It was there that he came to know and work with Degas, Monet and Renoir.

Works by Puigaudeau are housed in import!ant collections throughout France, including several in the Museé de Nantes, the artist’s native town.

Beginning in the 1850s, the religious traditions, mystical practices and culture of Pont-Aven gave birth to a new pictorial style in French painting. The numerous artists working in that region adopted vivid color use and created compositions that utilized simplified space with sharply defined forms. Puigaudeau was of this colony and hence contributed to the birth of the “Pont-Aven School.” He developed close relationships with Gauguin, Degas, Rysselberghe, Ensor and Bernard. Degas often affectionately referred to Puigaudeau as the l’ermit of Kervaudu (a town within the Pont-Aven region).

Puigaudeau’s distinctive impressionistic style is evident in his variations of color and depictions of light. Windmills and nighttime seascapes were typical of his work due to his fascination with the nocturnal transparency of light, which he gained through the study of Carravagio’s dramatic night paintings. He would often construct a series of paintings of a particular theme throughout various times in the day. In a letter to his cousin Alphonse de Chateaubriant, he described this technique as “renewing the identity” of the subject matter.

Due to personal tragedies his paintings were never properly exposed until the last few years when several exhibitions have been dedicated to his beautiful, mysterious and spiritual work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROCESSION DE NUIT À SAINT-POL-DE-LÉON c. 1898
32 x 39 3/8 inches
Oil on canvas

 

 "The Procession de nuit à Saint Pol de Léon, no. 335 by M. du Puigaudeau is quite striking. If one was standing in front of the church one would believe that the girls and the women were pushing and bumping into each other having a great time blowing out and then lighting their candles. It is a real symphony of blues. Everything is blue, the sky, the houses, the head-dresses, the gowns. For tackling such a difficult composition M. du Puigaudeau is due praise as he has captured movement, light and space within the confused and disorganised mass of bodies."1

 

 

 

Tamaris Et Champs De Coquelicots
23 5/8 x 31 1/2 inches (60 x 80 cm.)
Oil on canvas

 

 

 

 

 

Effet Du Lumiere, Sur Le Croisic
32 x 39 5/8 in. (81.4 x 100.7 cm.)
Oil on canvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le Chemin Du Jardin De Kervadu
21 1/4 x 29 inches
Oil on canvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marine
25 7/8 x 32 1/8 inches (65 x 81 cm.)
Oil on canvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quatorze de Juillet, Fete Forain
25 3/4 x 31 7/8 inches
Oil on canvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quatorze Juillet in Brittany
24 x 18 inches
Oil on canvas

 Fireworks over the rooftops of a Breton village celebrate France's Independence Day, Bastille Day, the 14th of July. With this image Puigaudeau combines his strengths as a painter of nocturnes with his intense love for his region, expressed in the magic light of the fireworks display.