Les modèles de Pont-Aven

Les modèles de Pont-Aven (The Models of Pont-Aven) is Robert Wylie's group portrait of sixteen of the residents of the town of Pont-Aven, France, who served as models for his many paintings showing local customs and daily life in the rural French province of Brittany. Mostly wearing traditional garb, the figures range in gender, age, and expression. They appear casually gathered in the dark interior space to witness some interesting but undefined spectacle that elicits reactions ranging from delight to skepticism; a young man on the right is the only one oblivious to the common object of attention as he reaches down to place an apple in the slyly proffered hand of a girl holding a dog on her lap. She and another handsome young woman occupy a bench made from a wooden plank suspended between a pair of barrels, with the elaborately carved wood panels of old-fashioned furniture visible behind them.

The artist first visited Pont-Aven in the summer of 1864, during vacation from his art studies in Paris. He soon became the center of an important colony of artists, many of them fellow Americans, attracted by the isolated town's quaint setting and traditional ways. They painted in a communal studio in a nearby abandoned château they filled with props and bric-a-brac, quite likely the setting for this work. Wylie led these artists in painting images of the local peasantry that became wildly popular among American collectors. His relationship with his subjects was unique, however. The only artist to take up year-round residence in Pont-Aven, he even learned to speak the regional language, Breton. Wylie's resulting ability to astutely characterize his individual models is reflected in Les Modèles de Pont-Aven and distinguishes his interpretations of everyday Breton peasant life. Whereas his early anecdotal scenes emphasize setting to underscore their authenticity, such later works as Les Modèles de Pont-Aven focus on monumental, dramatically highlighted figures—a shift that perhaps may manifest the artist's developing understanding of and appreciation for local peasant culture.

Long called The Breton Audience, a title evidently assigned by an earlier owner, the painting has now been identified as Les Modèles de Pont-Aven, a work exhibited at Wylie's posthumous exhibition at his Paris dealer's in 1878. The two titles are equally valid descriptions, however, for the painting can be interpreted as portraying simultaneously a lively gathering of the artist's models and a fictive audience for an amusing show. In either case, the object of their interest is surely the artist at work and, by extension, the viewer. In this way, Les Modèles de Pont-Aven subtly functions as Wylie's meditation on the tension between his sympathetic relationship with his adopted community and the objectification of French peasantry in which his own art was a persuasive agent.

Adventure and Inspiration, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, 1988.

Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 1–November 1, 1992; April 1–October 31, 1993; April 1–October 30, 1994; April 1–October 31, 1995. [exh. cat.]

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1999–May 7, 2000 (in modified form). [exh. cat.]

L'Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003.

The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940 (Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains 1840–1940), Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 15–May 25, 2003; Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 8–August 17, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Copley to Cassatt: Masterworks from the Terra Collection, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut and Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, September 5–December 7, 2003.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Cracow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Cracow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 222; pl. 57, p. 223 (color).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 222; pl. 57, p. 223 (color).

Myers, Julia R. "'Sympathy for Humanity': Robert Wylie and His Paintings of Breton Life." The American Art Journal 28:1–2 (1997): 82–121. Fig. 1, p. 82 (black & white), ill. back cover (color).

Cartwright, Derrick R. The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text pp. 18, 27 (checklist); fig. 19, p. 18 (black & white).

Cartwright, Derrick R. Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text pp. 18, 27 (checklist); fig. 19, p. 18 (black & white).

Cartwright, Derrick R. The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text pp. 18, 24 (checklist); fig. 6, p. 18 (black & white).

Cartwright, Derrick R. L'Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2001. Text pp. 18, 24 (checklist); fig. 6, p. 18 (black & white).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2003. Text p. 30 (checklist).

Myers, Julia Rowland. "J. Alden Weir's essay on 'Modern Life': In the Park of 1879." The American Art Journal 34–35 (2003–2004): 145–185. Text p.158; fig. 12, p. 159 (black & white).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Ill. p. 88 (color).

Wardle, Marian, ed. The Weir Family 1820–1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art. (exh. cat. Brigham Young University Museum of Art). Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2011. Text, p. 65, ill. fig. 3.7, p. 64 (black & white).