The Yellow Sail, Peninsula of Quiberon

Devoting himself exclusively to painting from 1890 on, in 1903 Maufra settled in Kerhostin, on the Quiberon Peninsula, following a stay in Pont-Aven, where he met Gauguin and often saw Renoir, Puvis de Chavannes, Sisley, and Pissarro. Initially interested in the doctrines of Symbolism and Synthetism, in the end he drew closer to Impressionism, while at the same time retained a certain freedom of interpretation in depicting nature. Presented at the Exhibition of French Art held at the Art Association of Montreal in 1909, The Yellow Sail shows the full scope of Maufra’s talent. He excelled in rendering light and vibrant colours, although his sense of composition remained based on line. The work’s subject, a seaside landscape, demonstrates the attachment he had to his native region.