Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School by André Cariou

André Cariou is an art historian and a specialist in the life and work of Paul Gauguin and the painters of the Pont-Aven school. He has devoted many years of research to the artistic milieu of Pont-Aven, through publications and exhibitions that have become landmarks.

An isolated village in Brittany, Pont-Aven welcomed a colony of French and foreign artists from the 1830s onwards, curious to paint the wild landscapes and traditional costumes. Gauguin's stays were to structure the history of the Pont-Aven school. Born within the Pont-Aven school, under the guidance of Emile Bernard and Gauguin, synthetism is one of the first breaks with traditional painting, and thus one of the first steps in the genesis of modern art in the 20th century.