{"id":83740,"date":"2021-09-02T18:05:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T16:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/uncategorized\/young-christian-girl-bretonne-en-priere\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T20:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T18:43:54","slug":"young-christian-girl-bretonne-en-priere","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/paul-gauguin\/young-christian-girl-bretonne-en-priere\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Gauguin \u2013 Young Christian Girl (Bretonne en Pri\u00e8re)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Paul Gauguin \u2013 Young Christian Girl (Bretonne en Pri\u00e8re) \u2013 hand-painted oil painting reproduction<\/h2>\n

She is a Breton girl, but the dress is not Breton. The canvas was painted in 1894<\/strong>, oil on canvas, 65.3 \u00d7 46.7 cm<\/strong> (height \u00d7 width, so an upright format), and it is held by the Clark Art Institute<\/strong> in Williamstown, Massachusetts, under accession number 1986.22<\/strong>. The girl joins her hands, bows her head and closes her eyes. Here that prayer is made again under the brush: a hand-painted oil painting reproduction<\/strong>, oil on canvas, with no printing.<\/p>\n

A dress that does not belong in Brittany<\/h3>\n

On her head is a dark Breton cap, at her throat a thin chain with a small cross, and she wears a long yellow gown<\/strong> with a straight collar and scattered coloured dots. The museum that owns the picture reads it this way: instead of the white lace and dark clothing of Breton women, she wears a dress of the kind Christian missionaries brought to the islands of the South Seas. That is the museum\u2019s reading and we give it as a reading rather than as fact \u2013 but it is exactly what the canvas shows.<\/p>\n

Brittany between two Tahitis<\/h3>\n

The year is not incidental. Gauguin came back to France from his first Tahitian stay in 1893<\/strong>, spent 1894<\/strong> in Brittany, and in June 1895<\/strong> sailed back to the Pacific for good. This picture is therefore a Breton subject painted by the hands of a man who had just returned from Tahiti. That is why two worlds meet in it: the Breton cap and the prayer on one side, the flat colour and the mission gown on the other.<\/p>\n

A broken leg, May 1894<\/h3>\n

The Breton year ended badly. In May 1894<\/strong> Gauguin broke his leg above the ankle in a brawl with sailors and for months could not stand at an easel; instead of painting he worked on drawings and prints. That circumstance is what makes the canvas scarce: it belongs to the short window in which he could still paint. In the lower right corner stand the signature P Gauguin<\/strong> and the year 94<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A hand-painted reproduction for your home<\/h3>\n

The yellow takes up almost the whole surface, so this picture lights a corner by itself and carries a darker wall well. We paint it in eight sizes; 47 \u00d7 65 cm<\/strong> is the nearest to the original, while for a larger wall 90 \u00d7 120 cm is a frequent choice. From the same Breton circle come Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven<\/a> \u2013 the same village, but dancing instead of praying; The Green Christ<\/a> sets faith into the Breton landscape, and Breton Eve<\/a> is likewise a Breton figure doing something other than what you expect.<\/p>\n