The musée du Faouët is a museum of France in the former convent of the Ursulines. Every year it presents a temporary exhibition on a Breton artistic theme or on the work of a painter, a photographer, a draftsman who passed through this town, in the heart of the country of King Morvan, and found inspiration.

The museum has dedicated exhibitions to some great names of Breton painting. Yvonne Jean-Haffen, Henri Rivière, Mathurin Méheut, Lucien Victor Delpy, the Seiz Breur, Henri Barnoin, Micheau-Vernez and Fernand Le Gout-Gérard are among the artists who preceded Ernest Guérin on the picture rails of the chapel of the Ursulines.

An artist with early success

Born in Rennes in 1887, Ernest Guérin decided to join the school of Fine Arts of his city from the age of 15. The artist is introduced to the practice of painting by his director Jules Ronsin, portrait painter. Ernest Guérin was also trained by Jean Lafon, a landscape painter specializing in marine figurations. Like his masters, he chose his native region as his favourite subject. After his apprenticeship at the age of 20, in 1907, the artist moved to Paris. He integrates the studio of a Parisian decorator and architect and is introduced by his aunt, who lives in the capital, in Parisian celtic circles. Only 26 years old, Ernest Guérin, already recognized as a talented watercolourist, was selected to exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Pavillon de Marsan, in the spring of 1913. His exhibition is acclaimed by critics and all 53 works composed of watercolors and illuminations are acquired by the same collector, Doctor Guérault, president of the Federation of Bretons of Paris. That same year, Ernest Guérin married his first cousin, Renée Lebouc, of whom he had five children. During the Great War, during the period 1915-1916, he served in the 70^e Infantry Regiment then at 50^e Artillery regiment where he is detached from the corps as a layer at the Atelier de Construction in Rennes. Reformed in July 1916 for health reasons, he moved to Porspoder with his family until 1918. He returned to Rennes the same year to work on a decoration commission of the Hôtel Moderne installed quai Lamennais. Annaig was born in Rennes on 18 September 1918. The enigmatic gaze of the Daughter of Plougastel-Daoulas In the elegant shaman costume, the blindness of the couple’s third child is unmistakable.

Daughter of Plougastel Daoulas © DRAC Bretagne

The residence in which he settled definitively with his wife and his first three children at the end of 1918 in Quiberon is called Ty Santez Anna (the home of Sainte-Anne) in tribute to the saint, patroness of the region. He added a wing to the house, reorganized its distribution and decorated it by himself designing stained glass windows and some furniture. He is even involved in the landscaping of the garden, of which the drawings presented in the exhibition remain.

Ty Santez Anna © Faouët Museum

Very quickly, thanks to the character of his work which paints the customs of the peasants and fishermen, the harshness of their life and their religious festivals as well as the wild character of the Breton landscapes, his reputation grows and exceeds the hexagonal borders. He obtained important orders, both in France and abroad, mainly from the wealthiest social classes. In 1914, the French government commissioned a work for the official visit of King George V of England. This early fame led him to present his work throughout France, but his love for his native region pushed him to leave the capital. He set up a gallery in Quiberon in 1925 and then in Dinard from 1926 to 1933. He multiplied the production of works such as his successful Breton cottages. His success reached a wide audience. In 1941, German soldiers acquired one of his watercolors as a wedding gift from one of their own.
This notoriety faded after the war. Ernest Guérin died on May 10, 1952 in Quiberon. 

The Breton imagier
From his training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, Ernest Guérin distinguished himself by his mastery of drawing, gouache, watercolor and oil, a technique he used more rarely in his work. He also attended an architecture workshop with Emmanuel Le Ray.

Aquarellist, illuminator, miniaturist, Ernest Guérin practices the art of illumination with meticulousness and decorative qualities of great finesse, for which he had already distinguished himself at the Beaux-Arts of Rennes by obtaining a medal of excellence.

The sense of detail in his illuminations and miniatures is also found in his watercolors where Lilliputian characters walk along paths strewn with small pebbles, arid moors or bare dunes. Over time, his works evolved towards purity. The small pebbles disappear, the backgrounds are simplified and the watercolor motifs are sometimes identified or structured with a line pressed to the lead mine. The artist stopped the miniatures around 1943 because his view decreased. From that time on, his way changed: his light faded in the grey of foggy days and his landscapes became more vaporous. He nevertheless retains the technical mastery that exploits as much the reserve of the paper as the fluidity of the watercolor to figure with virtuosity clouds, waves and aerial seas, light and bright.

Ernest Guérin is permeable to Asian influences and in particular to that of Japanese artists he knows as well as the Flemish and Italian primitives. Some of his works evoke the pre-impressionism of William Turner where others distinguish the influence of Pre-Raphaelism. If he remains out of the currents that cross the painting of the early twentieth century, Ernest Guérin is nevertheless an original work recognizable among all.

formats From the watercolor miniature of a few square centimeters to the triptych of which he appropriates the format from 1921, Ernest Guérin is the author of an important set of works on Brittany. He also made some large formats for hotel decors. The most emblematic is the decor for the Hôtel Moderne in Rennes, which he painted in oil and completed in 1918. Composed of seven canvases in three distinct ensembles, the largest measures 2.34 x 6.32 meters and was purchased by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes in 2001.

And executives
The ornamentation of the frame underlines its importance in the painter’s work. The so-called «tabernacle» frames, sometimes semicircular, sometimes pointed arch, of neo-Gothic shape, are naturally inspired by the Italian or Flemish primitives. Ernest Guérin draws from the Middle Ages, not only the pictorial techniques, but also the artisanal approach by creating the motif of some of his frames. For works of extremely small size, some frames are freestanding and give his works a character as close to the object of devotion as the object of art.

Female figures of medieval inspiration in their original setting © DRAC Bretagne

The Brittany of fishermen, pardons and legends

Focused on a regional theme, Ernest Guérin creates many watercolours with the theme of Breton cottages, the sea, churches and pardons in an extremely mastered technique. His work, resulting from the observation of the elements and scenes of daily life, extends to a dreamed Brittany, mythical and legendary.

Detail of a poster made by Ernest Guérin for his gallery in Quiberon © DRAC Bretagne

The sea and the fishermen
From his residences in Porspoder and even more in Quiberon, Ernest Guérin has every opportunity to observe nature and maritime life during long contemplative walks. The sea, the waves and the coastal rocks are subjects in their own right. Life and maritime activity are equally represented. The departure of fishermen or their return, the bringing back of blue nets, that is to say, the restoration of fishing nets, the activity of schooners, the representation of boats of different types (sardines, bisquines of Cancale, boats and rowboats) are the main theme of many watercolors or animate the backgrounds of some landscapes.

Sardines from Douarnenez © DRAC Bretagne

Pardons 
The representation of these pilgrimage forms typical of Brittany is another recurring theme in the work of Ernest Guérin. Organized on fixed dates, in a specific place, they are dedicated to a specific saint. They include a mass and an outdoor procession carrying relics and banners to a sacred place following a route sometimes taking the sea route. They are frequently associated with secular events such as fairs, fairs or sports competitions. The artist focuses on the moment of the procession, of departure or return of forgiveness. 
Around 1911, while settling in Paris, Ernest Guérin frequented Penmarc'h and its port Saint-Guénolé, Saint-Jean-Trolimon, Pont-l'Abbé. He allowed himself some excursions to Concarneau, Douarnenez, Plonévez Porzay, Châteaulin, Audierne and Plougastel.
It was at this time that he began an inventory of the pardons of Lower Brittany. It represents those of Sainte-Anne-la-Palud, Châteaulin, Faouët, Saint-Jean-Trolimon, Tronoën, Saint-Trémeur au Guilvinec and many others. He then tightened his gaze on Bigouden pardons, notably that of Notre-Dame de la Joie in Saint-Guénolé, which he represented many times. The format of the tryptic, composed of three parts and inspired by medieval altarpieces, frequently adopted to represent pardons, allows it to extend the course of processions, to depict side scenes or to enlarge its landscapes by dedicating one of the panels to a maritime opening.

The Pardon of Tronoën © DRAC Bretagne

The Brittany of saints, chivalry and legends
Ernest Guérin is a good observer of Breton life but he is perhaps above all a dreamer. Even his landscapes or scenes of local daily life reveal a universe that seems little impacted by the mutations following the first world war. At the beginning of the 20th century, as the great artistic revolutions ignite, Ernest Guérin also invites us to visit an imagined Brittany, out of time, inspired by a dreamlike Middle Ages where the legends of Breton saints and the achievements of ducal history mingle with the Arthurian cycle. From an early age, he was inspired by themes that anchored part of the myth of King Arthur, of which he became a great connoisseur, in the forest of Brocéliande not far from Rennes. The poet Théodore Botrel (1868-1925) who, like Anatole Le Braz (1859-1926), counts among his friends, as well as Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué (1815-1895) and his Barzaz Breizh, also inspire some of his works.

These are the nine saincts of Brittany, 
April 1917, illumination, watercolor and gouache on vellum © DRAC Bretagne

Forgotten by the general public, but not by some lovers of Breton culture after the Second World War, Ernest Guérin was brought to light in 2001-2002 by the cross-exhibitions of the Breton departmental museum of Quimper and the Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes. A hundred of his works were presented during the summer of 2006 in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer for the 11th Art Festival. The exhibition of the Musée du Faouët completes the knowledge of the artist’s career and his work devoted to a timeless Brittany.

In practice 

• The Faouët Museum is open every day of August from 10am to 6:30pm, from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 12pm/ 2pm to 6pm in September-October and Sunday from 2pm to 6pm in September as well as Sunday 6 October (the last day of opening).
• Do not hesitate to ask for a magnifying glass offered at the museum reception to fully appreciate some of the works

• For the European Heritage Days the museum is planning a demonstration on the discovery of pigments and the use of color in the time of Ernest Guérin, a conference and flash visits 

The press kit of the exhibition