Breton Girls Dancing, Pont-Aven

Paul Gauguin

Oil on canvas

National Gallery of Art

Painted during the summer of 1888 in the village of Pont-Aven, Brittany, this oil on canvas depicts three young girls in traditional Breton costume — dark dresses, white aprons, and coiffes — holding hands as they perform a local folk dance, the gavotte, in an open field. The composition reflects Gauguin's deep engagement with Breton rural culture, which he sought for its perceived authenticity, Celtic traditions, and distinctive dress. During this pivotal Pont-Aven sojourn, Gauguin and his colleague Émile Bernard were actively developing the Cloisonnist style, characterized by flat areas of color and bold, defining outlines. The painting is considered one of the first ambitious figure works Gauguin produced that year, marking a decisive shift toward the simplified, expressive formal language that would define his mature art.