John Peter Russell

(1858-1930)

Loctudy, c.1883

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Private collection, France

EXHIBITED
John-Peter Russell, Un Impressionniste Australien, Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix, France, 27 June - 2 November 1997; Musée de la cohue, Vannes, 22 May - 13 September 1998, cat. 29, as 'Paysage de la Baie de Somme', c.1887

LITERATURE
John-Peter Russell, Un Impressionniste Australien, Musee de Morlaix, France, 1997, cat. 29 (illus.)
Ann Galbally, A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent Van Gogh and John Peter Russell, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2008, p. 61, fn. 32, p. 267


In 1881 John Peter Russell enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College, London where he studied - at a somewhat leisurely pace – under Frenchman Alphonse Legros. Still craving more artistic development, he moved to Paris where he eventually joined the Atelier Cormon at 104 Boulevard de Clichy which was run by the academic artist Fernand Cormon. It was here that he befriended fellow students Vincent van Gogh, Emile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec which led to other close artistic friendships, mostly notably with Claude Monet. During this time he mixed study with frequent trips abroad to Spain, Sicily and countryside France.

The independently wealthy Russell had learnt to sail in Australia and hence invested in a yacht while living in Paris. In 1883 Russell sailed down the Breton coast, an area then attracting the interest of several artists in his immediate circle. Having its origins in a Celtic past, Brittany was (and still is to some degree) quite different from the rest of France. In the nineteenth century its strong rural customs, its language, food and culture, went through something of a fashion, a trend that Russell was very likely aware of and set out to explore for himself. Geographically the Breton coast varies from the dramatically rugged to white sandy beaches but the ancient battlements and fortresses that dotted the coast were also an attraction for Russell. It was probably on this voyage that the artist first saw Belle Ile, the island that soon would become his home and whose landscape captivated him from the very first.

It was also probably on this trip that Russell painted this work of Loctudy, a small town which sits at the mouth of the Pont-L'Abbé river estuary. It is just north of Pont-Aven, the Breton town where Russell's friend the artist Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin would form their art colony a few years later. The town enjoys a sheltered location on the otherwise wild and blustery Bigouden coast and was known to experienced seamen as enjoying more favourable currents than other nearby ports. In the decades prior to Russell's visit, Loctudy had become a fashionable seaside resort for wealthy residents from the nearby ancient town of Quimper. Here the rich built their houses in dark Breton granite and grey roof shingles with dormer windows, making for a distinctive local architecture that has endured over the centuries and which is here depicted by the artist.

Here also are the beginnings of the style and range of colour tones that would later make Russell's name, and an Impressionism that is very nearly Pointillist in application. Depicted is an evening scene in which Russell utilizes his favourite colours so effectively, graduating from the softest azures to the deepest cobalt and ultramarine blues to create a moody nocturne.

Candice Bruce