A Clear Sky Over Henry Moret

Paris, October 2016: at the presentation of the Shchukin Collection, alongside works by Monet, Signac and Gauguin, could be seen a small Breton landscape showing Port Manec’h, a bathing resort in south Finistère. Two houses in the foreground, two little boats in the creek below, and further out, halfway between sky and land, the lighthouse of Port Manec’h. Its vibrant colours are a subtle mix of green and pink particularly favoured by the creator of this 1896 painting. The artist in question is Henry Moret. This Normandy-born artist with a Breton soul devoted most of his work to Brittany, whose ever-wild landscapes and stormy seas still attract numerous artists seeking fresh inspiration. Contemporary with Paul Gauguin and a friend of Maxime Maufra, Henry Moret is not the best-known of the Le Pouldu and Pont-Aven group who developed Synthetism. "And yet he was an essential part of this movement," says Jean-Yves Rolland, who, together with Marie-Bénédicte Baranger, authored a fine book on the painter published…