The Three-Pond Cottage (Primary Title)
Paul Sérusier, French, 1864 - 1927 (Artist)
Sérusier was part of a small circle of young artists who formed around Gauguin at Pont-Aven in the late 1880s. During this apprenticeship, Sérusier explored means of transposing the distinctive features of the Brittany countryside onto his canvases. He also began making outdoor sketches before returning to his studio to experiment with applying unmodulated colors to create bold contours and symbolic resonances, a method that became a lifelong practice.
During one of his outdoor work sessions, Sérusier discovered a picturesque cottage in the village of Le Pouldu. The limited chromatic variety of the low stone walls, the golden wheat fields and haystacks, and the muddied ponds provided an ideal iconography for the artist’s innovative approach to landscape painting. The overall effect of this experiment was nothing less than the total sublimation of the observed locale into a scene inhabited by a spiritual presence, a mystical vision rendered onto the canvas in a bold harmonization of color and form.
The Three-Pond Cottage at Le Pouldu is a masterpiece of Post-Impressionist painting and was one of the works that were a catalyst for the Nabi movement. This ambitious large-scale composition perfectly illustrates the essential nature of Gauguin’s influence on an entire generation of avant-garde painters while highlighting Sérusier’s importance as a conduit of that influence.
Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 10 April - 30 May 1993
Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, 8 June - 18 July 1993
Hokkaido, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, 25 July - 29 August 1993
Mie, Prefectual Art Museum, 4 September - 3 October 1993
Koriyama, Koriyama City Museum of Art, 9 October - 28 November 1993
- Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School, travelling exhibition from 1994 to 1997 (catalogue page 142, no.110, repr. in colour). Venues:
Sydney, Art Gallery of new South Wales, 13 May-24July 1994
Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 8 september-23 October 1994
Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 20 November 1994-15 January 1995
Montreal, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 9 February-mid April 1995
Memphis, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 6 May-early July 1995
San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art, 8 July-15 October 1995
Portland, Portland Museum of Fine Arts, 15 November 1995-14 January 1996
Boston, Boston Museum of Fine Art, 26 June-16 Spetember 1996
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, 15 October 1996-14 Januray 1997
- Passions Partagees: De Cezanne a Rothko, chefs d'oeuvres du XXe siecle dans les collections privees suisses, Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, 26 June-25 October 2009 (catalogue, page 34, no. 87, repr. in color)
Curator’s Talk: The Reinstallation of the Mellon Collection
1:14:33The collection of European paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts given by Paul and Rachel Mellon constitute an essential facet of the museum’s identity. Dr. Sylvain Cordier, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, discusses the reinstallation of the Mellon Collection.
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
