(Venice 1884 – 1947 Treviso)
Paesaggio bretone, circa 1907, signed G. Rossi, oil on canvas laid down on canvas, 36.6 x 46 cm, framed, (PP)

Photo certificate from Prof Luigi Meneguzzi, Treviso

Provenance:
Private Collection, Italy

Gino Rossi’s second trip to Paris included a stay in Brittany, which would prove vital for the later development of his art. He executed a series of works, the subject matter of which he would later recoup, either in Brittany itself or immediately after his return to Venice. During that period he executed unique paintings, such as Il vecchio villaggio, Paesaggio con mulino, Chiesetta in Bretagna, Paese in Bretagna, Douarmenez, Cittadina bretone in riva al mare, Porto in Bretagna, Pianura bretone, Chiesa in Bretagna, Colline in Bretagna.
The present Breton landscape, Paesaggio bretone, also belongs to this series. It is characterised by great compositional balance as well as extreme simplicity. The slightly elevated viewpoint accentuates the receding landscape in a sequence of curving lines, culminating in a series of chaumières, stone houses with characteristic straw and oakum roofs. Villages with chaumières could be easily reached along the road towards Douarnenez in South Finistère. In this painting, the chaumières, arrayed alongside one another to the left and scattered to the right, provide the link between the mainland and the sea. In the centre, six black boats in the bend in river near the coast with their triangular orange sails and two small boats lying to one side form a ‘barrier’ between the landscape of fields in the foreground and the almost monotone background created by the sea and the sky. The colour palette is not as magnificent as in the well-known Primavera in Bretagna held at the Treviso Museum. The colours are rather matt and muted in this work, their variations and the use of contrasting hues creating an overall impression of a great, measured harmony. The dominant greent and blue tones are rather unlikely for the real landscape of Brittany, but Gino Rossi’s landscape paintings are not intended as an objective reproduction of reality. Instead they are meant to give expression to emotions and feelings belonging to the inner world of the artist, his secret thoughts and his soul. (Luigi Menegazzi)