Collection du Dr. Ravallec ;

Vente anonyme ; Brest, Me Thierry Lannon, 16 décembre 2001, n° 220 ;

A l'actuel propriétaire par cessions successives ;

Collection particulière, France

Pont-Aven, Musée de Pont-Aven, Emile Jourdan 1860-1931, juin-septembre 1987, n° 32, reproduit p.40-41

L'authenticité de cette oeuvre a été confirmée par Monsieur Yannick Doyen.

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Mr. Yannick Doyen.

Emile Jourdan belonged to what art historians in the 20th century called the École de Pont-Aven, a group of artists who, during the late 1880s, gathered around Paul Gauguin in a very informal way, painting in the secluded spots of Brittany in search of new sensations in close proximity to the wild nature of Finistère. Some adapted the principles of Impressionism to the bright light of the region, while others inaugurated a new chapter in modern art with their synthesised forms.

Emile Jourdan, a native of Vannes, arrived in Pont-Aven in 1888 and became friends at the Auberge Gloanec with Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard, Henry Moret, Charles Laval and Ernest de Chamaillard. Adapting synthetic writing to his vision of the nature of Brittany, he described it with a veil of mystery, and a very personal sense of construction and movement. He painted little, exhibited little, but remained deeply attached to his homeland, seeking to convey its identity, its poetry and the hardships it imposed on human life. Jourdan worked in series, until the subject was exhausted. His palette is made up of greens, mauves, pink-mauves, pink-browns and green skies.

Between 1911 and 1920 he frequented Roland Dorgelès, Pierre Mac-Orlan and Maurice Asselin at the auberge de la Mère Bacon in Brigneau. He lived off his friends, including the Doctor Ravallec, a doctor in Moëlan, where our panel, which served as a fireplace screen, comes from. The scene was painted from the terrace of the Bacon inn; it can be found elsewhere, in the canvas in the Brest museum from the former Serusier collection, with this same combination at once skilful and spontaneous of mauves, greens and blues.   

Jourdan sacrificed his life and his family for his art, leading a solitary, itinerant existence, marked by poverty and an addiction to alcohol that kept him from success. Recognition came in 1955, twenty-four years after his death, when Jean Cassou bought ‘Pluie à Pont-Aven’, now in the Musée d'Orsay, for the national collections. But to date, the only Emile Jourdan retrospective was held at the Musée de Pont-Aven in 1987. Much remains to be discovered about this singular artist.