Biography

Known principally as a painter of seascapes and landscapes, Henry Moret was born December 12, 1856 and died May 5, 1913 in Paris. Moret studied the natural landscape of Normandy and Brittany where he lived most of his life. His career coincided with the history of French Impressionism, and his role became that of interpreter of the natural beauty and the people of the Breton landscape. In Paris, he studied with Carolles and J.P. Laurens, but after his debut at the Salon de Paris of 1880, he evaded academic painting by choosing to live and paint outdoors, away from the artists' mecca. In 1888 he made contact with Paul Gauguin and Emil Bernard at Pont-Aven where he became part of the group of young artists working in Gauguin's circle there. Between 1884 and 1894 Moret concentrated on capturing the qualities inherent in the Breton landscape. After 1894,while still painting Breton subjects, Moret again changed his style to reflect his background as an Impressionist painter -- a background that seems to have restrained him from the unequivocal application of Gauguin's more synthetic style. As seen in the present composition here, painted in 1901, Moret's later style was then a robust form of Impressionism to which he is primarily indebted to Monet.