Cows graze and drink near a Breton lake.

Gaston Maury, Between Photography and Painting

…Others received a form of discreet recognition, such as Gaston Maury (1874-1935), an amateur photographer from Rennes who ran a factory on the Route de Lorient, specializing in the preparation of animal bristles for brushmaking. An active member of the Société photographique de Rennes, he was also a corresponding member of the Photo Club de Paris, where he exhibited between 1903 and 1909.

Eminently pictorialist, the Gaston Maury collection presents real “photographic paintings” with worked framing, immersed in the blur of an aesthetic misty atmosphere. Few prints are captioned by the author: Concarneau, Douarnenez, Pont-Aven, Pont-l’Abbé in Finistère, Pacé, Rennes in Ille-et-Vilaine, Dinan in Côtes d’Armor, constitute some of the locations identified. A few doubles and triplicates give us the advantage of visualizing the author’s artistic research and essays. Dated between 1901 and 1910, the entire collection presents views largely composed of natural countryside landscapes (snowy landscapes, studies of vegetation, fields, etc.) and the coastline (boats, seascapes, etc.), giving for some the illusion of a painting like this Bord de Rivière.

Next comes a series of scenes from daily life that are much less retouched than the landscape views: scenes of work in the fields and on the farm, street scenes, scenes of ports and fishing, market scenes where the author has chosen to play on the weave of the paper as for that of Pont-Aven giving the striking effect of a painting, scenes of forgiveness showing pilgrims seated at tables and musicians. Finally, a few portraits including that of Gaston Maury by Georges Geay; a second one could be a self-portrait.

While it must be admitted that pictorialist production was of very uneven quality, it nevertheless created a real upheaval in photographic aesthetics. Artists like Gaston Maury, a talented amateur and virtually unknown today, contributed to the life and evolution of this first photographic artistic movement until the end of the Great War. – Olivier Barbet.

1. Olivier Barbet: Gaston Maury, Between Photography and Painting. Brittany Museum / March 21, 2022.