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39-602: Pont-Aven was "discovered" in 1864 by the American painter Henry Bacon (1839–1912). Two American art students, Earl Shinn (1838–1886) and Howard Roberts (1843–1900), arrived in Paris in the spring on 1866 and applied for admission to the École des Beaux-Arts . Their teacher in Philadelphia , Robert Wylie (1839–1877), had encouraged them to visit Pont-Aven in the summer. Word spread, and about twelve American and English artists spent

78-494: A critical and commercial success, encouraging Menpes to travel further abroad for artistic inspiration, and over the next two decades he went to India, China, Kashmir, and Myanmar, among other countries. He also went to South Africa as a war artist during the Boer War . A "born raconteur", Menpes was a fixture of British high society, and he became renowned for hosting soirées at his Japanese-style home on Cadogan Gardens , attended by

117-541: A formal art education. In 1864, he went to Paris, with his first wife Elizabeth Lord, to study figure painting. He was admitted to France's premiere 'National School of Fine Arts' and was one of Alexandre Cabanel 's pupils. Bacon traveled to Pont-Aven , a commune/village in the Finistère département , in Brittany and fell in love with Pont-Aven. Back in Paris, he mentioned the place to his friends who were painters. He

156-529: A great fire of 1857, James Menpes prospered, building commodious shops on St. Vincent Street, Port Adelaide and housing, "Cypress Terrace", on Wakefield Street, Adelaide . James retired from business in 1866 and returned to England with his wife, sons Mortimer and James Henry and two daughters, settling in Chelsea . Mortimer was educated at John L. Young 's Adelaide Educational Institution , attended classes at Adelaide 's School of Design , exhibited drawings with

195-400: A halo of vague and misty tales of his early life as a smuggler and wrecker on the wild coast nearby, never quite authenticated, but giving him much distinction and interest." Birge Harrison (1854–1929) described Marie Jeanne Gloanec as a "dear, wizened, motherly woman. She was an excellent cook, and took great pleasure in the company of her artists. The Pension Gloanec was at the entrance to

234-455: A long table, serving themselves out of a common dish, and dipping great slices of bread into their plates." Dorothy's mother categorized the painters as " Stripists , Dottists and Spottists , a sect of the Dottists , whose differentiation was too subtle to be understood. Several other artists stayed at the pension, including Émile Bernard and Arthur Wesley Dow . Paul Gauguin first stayed at

273-468: A property at 25 Cadogan Gardens , Sloane Square , designed for him by A. H. Mackmurdo in 1888 and decorated it in the Japanese style. Whistler and Menpes quarrelled in 1888 over the interior design of the house, which Whistler felt was a brazen copying of his own ideas. The house was sold in 1900, and Menpes moved to Kent. In 1900, after the outbreak of the Boer War , Menpes was sent to South Africa as

312-617: A special form of colour etching and exhibited coloured etchings at Dowdeswell's Gallery in London in late 1911/early 1912. He was also a pioneer, with Carl Hentschel (1864–1926), in the development of techniques to reproduce coloured art works in book form. His book, 'War Impressions', published in April 1901 by A. & C. Black, was the first book to faithfully reproduce art works in color, based on watercolors done by Menpes in South Africa, and therefore

351-469: A tailor and a chambermaid. Some time later her father opened a small inn, where Marie-Jeanne learned the trade. Her future husband was born on 10 March 1829 in Pont-Scorff. Both Joseph and Marie-Jeanne Gloanec were almost illiterate. Joseph Gloanec worked as a sawyer and mill repairer before they opened the inn. Arthur Hoeber (1854–1915) described him as a "prince of scoundrels and incomparable idlers, with

390-527: A war artist for the weekly illustrated magazine Black and White . After the end of the war in 1902 he travelled widely, visiting Burma, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Japan, Kashmir, Mexico, Morocco, and Spain. Many of his illustrations were published in travel books by A & C Black . His book on the Delhi Durbar was an illustrated record of the commemoration in Delhi of the coronation of King Edward VII . For

429-621: A wide circle of artists, writers, socialites and other prominent figures. He was the godfather of Oscar Wilde 's son Vyvyan . Menpes was born in Port Adelaide , South Australia, the second son of property developer James Menpes (1 August 1818 – 7 December 1906), who with his wife Ann, née Smith, arrived in South Australia from London on the Moffatt in December 1839. Despite losing much property in

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468-548: Is credited to have been the first American painter and among the first painters from a long group of painters to come to Pont-Aven including Paul Gauguin and advised and attracted fellow American, Robert Wylie to spend summers there (and Wylie is even buried in Pont-Aven). This period is known nowadays as the Pont-Aven School . Bacon exhibited at the salon from 1868 through to 1896 with genre works which had found favour with

507-650: Is evident in his later work. Menpes became a major figure in the etching revival , producing more than seven hundred different etchings and drypoints , which he usually printed himself. As early as 1880, a selection of ten of his drypoint portraits, donated to the British Museum by Charles A. Howell, brought him critical acclaim. In 1886 he agreed to stand as the godfather to his friend Oscar Wilde 's son Vyvyan , after John Ruskin had declined due to his age. A visit to Japan in 1887 led to his first one-man exhibition at Dowdeswell's Gallery in London. Menpes moved into

546-596: The Art Gallery of South Australia on 14 June 2014. Menpes, his parents and three of his siblings left for England in February 1875, never to return to Australia. However five of Menpes' sisters remained in South Australia. Four daughters married in Adelaide: Mary Ann (1839–1929), born aboard the Moffatt and married John Foach Hillier in 1865; Fanny married Robert Uphill in 1865; and Matilda (born 1850) in 1873 married

585-745: The Middle East , dying in Cairo. Henry A. Bacon was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1839. During the American Civil War , he enlisted in the Union Army on 16 July 1861 and acted as a field artist for Frank Leslie's Weekly while he served as a soldier within the 13th Massachusetts Infantry. Badly wounded at Bull Run , he was discharged on 19 December 1862. After the war, he studied art with Walter Gay , who suggested that he travel to Paris to undertake

624-576: The School of Art and exhibit at the Royal Academy . In 1880, during a sketching tour in Brittany , he befriended, and became a "disciple" of James McNeill Whistler . Under his influence, Menpes began incorporating motifs and techniques of Japanese art into his work, and in 1887, he travelled to Japan to witness its culture first-hand. He produced many Japonist works while there, which he exhibited back in London in 1888 at his first solo show. It proved to be

663-473: The South Australian Society of Arts , and did some excellent work as a photo-colourist, but his formal art training began at the School of Art in London in 1878, after his family had moved back to England in 1875. Edward Poynter was a fellow student at the school. Menpes first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, and, over the following 20 years, 35 of his paintings and etchings were shown at

702-537: The Academy. His father, late in life, also developed a passion for painting and did some excellent work. Menpes set off on a sketching tour of Brittany in 1880, during which he met James McNeill Whistler . He became Whistler's pupil, and at one stage shared a flat with him at Cheyne Walk on the Chelsea Embankment in London. He was taught etching by Whistler, whose influence, together with that of Japanese design,

741-667: The American market. He also worked as a journalist sending reports of events in Paris to the Boston Daily Evening Transcript. In 1897, he travelled to Egypt for the first time and began regularly spending winters there. At that time, he switched from oils to watercolours which he believed was the optimal medium to capture the transparent light of the Middle East. Bacon was the author of A Parisian Year (1882), which he also illustrated, and Parisian Art and Artists (1883). He contributed illustrations to Our Houseboat on

780-813: The Nile (1901) by Lee Bacon. From 1890 to 1898, he translated from the French annual volumes about the Paris Salon with illustrations by Goupil & Cie . Bacon died of a heart attack in Cairo, Egypt , in 1912. A bibliography of books written by, illustrated by, or translated by Henry Bacon: Mortimer Menpes Mortimer Luddington Menpes (22 February 1855 – 1 April 1938) was an Australian-born painter, author, printmaker and illustrator. Born and raised in Port Adelaide , South Australia, Menpes migrated with his family to London, England in his early 20s, where he went on to study at

819-735: The Pension Gloanec in June 1886, and found that the guests were almost all foreigners. Gauguin's studio in the Pension Gloanec in 1888 was decorated by prints by Utamaro . In early October 1888 Paul Sérusier was staying at the Pension Gloanec, where he submitted a canvas to Gauguin for criticism. The next morning Gauguin took him to the Bois d'Amour on the edge of Pont-Aven and gave him a lesson in colour. That morning Sérusier painted The Talisman (1888), which he described to his friends when he returned to Paris as being based on "the concept, still unknown to us of

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858-659: The Pension Gloanec, where he found Gauguin laid up with a broken leg caused by a fall during a fight with some fishermen in Concarneau . Gauguin spent his enforced stay in the inn making woodcuts from the subjects of his Tahitian paintings. Jarry wrote poems about three of Gauguin's Tahitian paintings in the Pension Gloanec Livre d'or , which had been started on 23 June 1894 by Gauguin, Eric Forbes-Robertson (1865–1935) and Roderic O'Conor (1860–1940). Jarry dated his poems 1 July 1894 and dedicated them to Gauguin. Jarry created

897-508: The Pont-Aven village square. There were few rooms for rent, and most of the artists lived elsewhere in the town and only ate at the pension. The auberge had only two rooms on the ground floor. At the front the kitchen-living room was entered from the square, and had a large fireplace. Corwin Knapp Linson (1864–1959) said the kitchen had two great Breton beds on either side of the fireside in which

936-548: The Rev. J(ohn) Hall Angas, a Presbyterian minister of Port Adelaide, later in Victoria . His fifth daughter Jessie (born 1853) married Robert Whitbread, of Blinman , in 1876. James Henry (born 1844), Emma (born 1857) and Louisa (born 1859) left with Mortimer and their parents for England in 1875. On 26 April 1875 at All Soul's Church, Langham Place, London, Menpes married fellow Australian Rosa Mary Grosse (1857 – 23 August 1936). Miss Grosse

975-657: The beginning of the twentieth century, Menpes also produced the "Menpes Series of Great Masters", which were copies by him of works by Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Van Dyck and others which were reproduced in printed form for sale. In 1911, Menpes donated 38 of his copies in oil to the Australian Government; these works have subsequently become part of the Pictures Collection at the National Library of Australia . Some pencil sketches by Menpes were published in

1014-450: The bridge. The signboard was painted by one of the inmates, and the panels of the rooms were also decorated with works of art. It was the true Bohemian home in the town where lodgings and two good meals per day with cider could be had for sixty francs a month. In the evening and in the morning, casually-dressed artists could be seen sitting around a table in the road, some of them with worldwide reputations. Birge Harrison wrote in 1888 that

1053-425: The delicious food of the dear old Marie-Jeanne was known by all the artists. Three busy waitresses served the tables with steaming dishes among the hubbub and gaiety, and from time to time Marie-Jeanne appeared at the door to join the cheerful atmosphere. Mortimer Menpes (1855–1938) stayed at the Pension Gloanec with his wife and daughter Dorothy. Dorothy described the dining room "where rough men sat on either side of

1092-814: The last 30 years of his life, Menpes retired to Iris Court, Pangbourne from where he managed his Purley-on-Thames business, "Menpes Fruit Farms". He built forty large greenhouses in which to grow carnations and eight cottages to accommodate the farm workers. He died in Pangbourne in 1938. Menpes became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) in 1881, Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1885, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1897 and Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1899. An exhibition of his work, The World of Mortimer Menpes: Painter, Etcher, Raconteur opened at

1131-417: The mistress and her maids slept. He wrote that the "time honoured fireplace was framed in a blazonment of brass and copper utensils which blinked, flashed, glowed according to ever changing humour of light." Behind the kitchen was the dining room, where food was served "to fatten you on the spot". The dining room was lined with beams and floorboards, drawings and studies. The work of the regular guests covered

1170-607: The painting as a flat surface covered in colours assembled in a certain order." Gauguin left Pont-Aven in 1889 to escape from the many painters living there. Marie Jeanne Gloanec, "la mère des peintres", earned enough from her painters to build a larger hotel in the town square. In 1892 the establishment was transferred to the Hotel Gloanec on the town square, later renamed the Hotel Le Glouannec. The writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) visited Pont-Aven in June 1894 and booked into

1209-440: The summer of 1866 in the village. The villager were friendly to the artists, found them studio space in the run-down Château de Lezaven, and were glad to pose for them. The painters appreciated the beauty of the surrounding landscape and the low living costs. They would use barns or sheds as studios. A growing number of foreign artists returned year after year, and some settled more or less permanently. French artists began to visit

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1248-540: The village in the mid- to late 1870s. The village became fashionable with members of the Salon in Paris. The artists stayed at the Hôtel des Voyageurs or the Pension Gloanec, or else found lodgings in the villagers' houses. The Pension Gloanec was opened in 1860 by Marie-Jeanne Gloanec (1839–1915) and Joseph Gloanec (1829–1906). Marie-Jeanne Morvant, later known as "La Mère Gloanec", was born on 8 February 1839 in Pont-Aven, daughter of

1287-478: The walls of the kitchen and dining room, depicting the local men and women who posed for the artists. The patronnes would often extend credit to the artists, or accept paintings as payment, and the artists were proud to have their work accepted and displayed. In this way, the Gloanecs acquired a major collection. The painter Édouard Girardet (1819–1880) described the pension in 1876, when Aloysius O'Kelly (1853–1936)

1326-429: The woodcut illustrations for his first book while in Pont-Aven. Marie-Jeanne died in 1915. Today the original Pension Gloanec is home to a bookstore that specializes in artistic books, with an area for meetings and exhibitions, and a permanent exhibition work by Henri Rivière and Breton prints. The Hotel Gloanec is now Les Ajoncs d'Or. Henry Bacon (painter) Henry Bacon (8 October 1839 – 13 March 1912)

1365-658: Was a fellow-passenger on the RMSS Nubia that took the Menpes family to London in 1875. She was an orphan: her mother Rosetta Matilda Grosse died in 1866 and her father James Grosse, a fellow member with James Menpes of the Port Adelaide Corporation and whose Will was executed by Menpes, in 1874. They had a son, Mortimer James (b. 1879) and two daughters, Rose Maud Goodwin and Dorothy Whistler. Menpes's cousin Thomas Smith

1404-463: Was a leading Australian rules footballer of the 1870s, winning three Port Adelaide Football Club Best and Fairest awards in succession. Menpes painted in oil and watercolour as well as being a prolific printmaker, producing over 700 etchings and drypoints during his career to great acclaim. A definitive catalog raisonne of his printed works was published in 2012 which also included an extensive biography and his exhibition history. He developed

1443-715: Was an American painter, author, illustrator, and translator. Before his formal training as an artist, he served as a soldier and war artist during the American Civil War , and was badly wounded in the Second Battle of Bull Run . He then studied in France, and became a member of the Pont-Aven School , painting genre subjects of French country life, many sold back in America. He first traveled to Egypt in 1897, and then developed an interest in Orientalist painting , soon spending his winters in

1482-456: Was staying there, as the rowdiest of the inns compared to the Hôtel des Voyageurs, favored by the Americans and the Hôtel du Lion d'Or, favored by the French. Thomas Hovenden stayed in the pension at that time, as did the American brothers Alexander and Birge Harrison. Henry Blackburn's Breton Folk: An Artistic Tour of Brittany (1880) described the pension as a quaint little auberge down by

1521-845: Was the forerunner of all illustrated art books. Menpes also founded the Menpes Press of London and Watford to produce colored illustrated books using the Hentschel Colourtype Process, which was a photographic process that involved taking three photographs of an art work using three different color filters (red, blue and yellow) and then combining them in the printing process. Menpes was a great traveler and undertook artistic journeys to Japan, China, Burma, Kashmir, Mexico, India, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt as well as within Europe to Brittany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and other places, often returning from such travels to mount exhibitions of his works. At

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