Harry Jones Thaddeus
, Irish, 1860-1929
Title
Market Day, FinistèreDate1882
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
201 x 132 cm
Signedlower centre: HJTHADDEUS 1882
Credit LinePurchased, 1986
Object numberNGI.4513
DescriptionPainted in Concarneau during the winter of 1881-1882, this is one of the most ambitious Breton canvases executed by the artist. It was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1882. Thaddeus had studied in Paris in 1880-1881 before coming to Brittany. Many artists were attracted to this picturesque part of France with its air of the exotic.The painting shows the beach at Concarneau, where a young woman in typical Breton costume pauses to inspect the local shellfish and chestnuts. Resting on her hip is a basket of leeks. The artist pays great attention to the depiction of clothes, lavishing attention on the wonderfully elaborate lace collar and fetching salmon pink and white bonnet. Her eye-catching apparel is in striking contrast to the plain garments of the old woman beside the brazier and the rather awkward youth intent on selling the local shellfish.
This is a masterly 'plein-air' scene combining immense interest in detail with a very open composition, which leads the eye through the market to the flat expanse of coast beyond. In the manner of the realist painter Jules Breton, Thaddeus is likely to have posed the young woman in his studio. She is more crisply painted than the other figures in the picture, and the colours used to describe her contrast strongly with the more muted tones of the background.
(National Gallery of Ireland: Essential Guide, 2008)
ProvenanceVincent Scully, England; Sotheby's, 16 April 1986, lot 229; purchased, Gorry Gallery, Dublin, October 1986, no.14 Exhibition HistorySalon, Paris, 1882
Industrial and Fine Art Exhibition, Cork, 1883
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 1883
Gorry Gallery, Dublin, 1986
Acquisitions 1986-1988, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1988
Irish Artists in Brittany, Musée de Pont-Aven, Pont-Aven, 26 June - 27 September 1999