The Wine Shop, Quimperle, Brittany by M. Elizabeth Price

The Wine Shop, Quimperle, Brittany by M. Elizabeth Price Looking Questions • Describe what you see in this painting. Create a list of all the details you can find. • Is there a focal point in this artwork? If so, what draws your eye to this location? • What colors do you see? How would you describe Price’s use of color? • How would you describe the use of texture in this painting? What effect does it create? • As the viewer, where are you standing in this painting? If you viewed this scene from a different perspective, what would change or stay the same? Explain. • Pick one of the people in this scene. Describe what it would feel like to be this individual. What would they say to you? Explain your answer. • What is the mood of this work? What elements of the work create this mood? • If you could give this painting a different title, what would you call it? Explain. • If you could tell a story about this work, what would it be? M. Elizabeth Price (1877-1965), The Wine Shop, Quimperle, Brittany, c.1920, Oil on canvas, H. 19.75 x W. 15.25 inches, James A. Michener Art Museum. Michener Art Endowment Challenge , Gift of Mrs. Mary Carter VanZanten. About The Painting Although best known for her lush floral still lifes, M. Elizabeth Price also created scenes of village and farm life like The Wine Shop, Quimperle, Brittany. During her artistic career, Price had taken a trip to France and Italy with Eleanor Abrams and Edith Lucille Howard, fellow members of The Philadelphia Ten. In 1921, Price and her studio mates Howard and Abrams shared a three-person exhibition, Little Paintings of Italy and France, at her brother’s Ferargil Art Gallery. This painting was featured in this group exhibition. Quimperle, a small town in Northern France, is a small town close to Quimper. Quimper known for the faience pottery it has produced since the 17th century. It is also close to Pont-Aven, the village made famous by Paul Gauguin and fellow Symbolist painters in the late 19th century. Like Gauguin’s work, Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), Price has included Breton women wearing the distinctive regional costume, including wooden sabots and white bonnets in her composition. Price focused on a simple street scene along with delighting in the patterns and colors she found in the village architecture – walls of warm creamy ochre, roof tiles in blues and greens accented by orange-red and ramshackle shutters of pale green. The application of the paint is loose and broken in an impressionist style, unlike the floral compositions she is well-known for. Small indications of her canvas peek through the bright, colorful brushstrokes. The figures look out at the viewer as if to welcome you into their village. Draw Your Neighborhood M. Elizabeth Price created a painting that shows a community in a town in France. Where do you live? What does your neighborhood look like? Do you have a busy street? Who do you live next to? Draw your neighborhood below. Include as many details as you can. Create a story with your image. Download a copy of this activity on Learn with the Michener: www.LearnMichener.org .

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