The purpose of this research is to examine two paintings by Paul Gaugin, A Swineherd, Brittany (1888), and Ia Orana Maria (1891). The plan of the research will be to set forth the background and context in which Gaugin created each painting, and then to compare and contrast analytically the content and apparent intent informing them, both intrinsically and as part of the larger scheme of Gaugin's body of work.
Gaugin's A Swineherd, Brittany, an oil painting on canvas, hangs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Measuring 29" x 36(", A Swineherd, Brittany is a horizontally oriented picture depicting a pastoral landscape that would have been familiar to Gaugin during his stay in Pont-Aven in Brittany. In the right foreground, a rocky pasture of grass along either a pond or a river, are the figures of a swineherd and two pigs. The swineherd stands before a rocky embankment as the pigs graze. In the middle distance on the left is a cow that appears to have its head raised, perhaps mooing; the udder is swollen, ready to be milked. Further in the distance, perhaps across the lake hidden by the rocky embankment, is a country village; the church spire, as well as a number of rooftops and buildings that, together with rows of trees, define three village streets can be made out. In the distance, beyond the village, are the rolling agricultural hills that overlook the village.
The time of day appears to be fairly late afternoon, given the fact that the light is hitting the foreground figures in a way that casts a shadow from the lower right (roughly southeast) toward the upper left (roughly northwest). This would confirm the condition of the cow. What is more striking about the viewpoint of the light, however, is the use of color in A Swineherd, Brittany. Despite abundant use of green in the pasture and in the rolling farmland hills in the distance, the decisive color of the painting is yellow, which draws the eye, not so much to yellow ...