Pardon Day in Brittany
Artist: Pierre Charles Poussin (French, 1819 - 1904)
Original Dimensions: 57 1/2" x 128 3/4"
Location: National Gallery of Art, London
About Artwork: (1851) "Pierre-Charles Poussin’s painting of 1851 shows a crowd of pilgrims who have gathered for the Pardon day at Guingamp in Brittany. Pardons were a Breton tradition in which the faithful would gain absolution for their sins in return for joining a procession to worship at selected shrines. Brittany, with its ancient traditions and costumes, became a popular subject with artists in the second half of the nineteenth century, and Poussin revels in the quaintness of the woodland scene. He creates a panorama filled with small details – from a scuffle and a pedlar hawking ribbons to a woman peeling turnips and mothers nursing babies. The decorous nature of the scene perhaps suggests that it is taking place before the festivities are fully underway. Poussin’s interest is not in the religious aspect of it all but in the colourful and picturesque nature of the gathering." - (National Gallery of Art, London)

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