Armand SEGUIN (Paris, 1869 - Châteauneuf-du-Faou, 1903) Breton musings Watercolour gouache over black pencil line Annotated, signed and dated 'Souvenir amical- / a - Seguin / octobre - 1901 -' at the bottom of the design Watermarked paper with crowned coat of arms Breton reveries, watercolour and gouache on black pencil, signed, by A. Seguin 11.02 x 9.05 in. 28 x 23 cm Bibliography: related : Wladyslawa Jaworska, Paul Gauguin et l'Ecole de Pont-Aven, Neuchâtel, 1971, p.139 to p.148 Séguin arrived at Le Pouldu in 1891, aged 22. He quickly became Paul Gauguin's favourite disciple and inseparable companion. Gauguin prefaced his first exhibition in 1895 at Le Barc de Boutteville, and Maurice Denis gave it a glowing review in "La Plume". He was off to a flying start, but it would be a long time before he got off the ground, after his death. Gauguin tried to take him with him to the Islands, but Séguin was unable to accompany him for lack of funds. Gauguin asked him again, but to no avail. Séguin, always in financial difficulties, made a living from his gift for illustration. He had an instinct for line, and adapted easily to the arabesques of Art Nouveau. The freshness of this watercolour owes as much to the suppleness of its curves as to the science of its wash. He was a specialist in watercolours, and in 1897 exhibited a series of fan designs featuring Breton women in the foreground against a background of the sea dotted with boat silhouettes. Here, the woman seems to be observing this sea of workers with a nonchalant distance, as if through a porthole, her forms and clothes undulating and merging into a hemmed wave; her hair, like a tear, slides into the corner of her eye. The sea is green and yellow, the boats red. This almost colour-blind alteration of vision invites us to dream, to travel. Séguin, failing to follow Gauguin to the other side of the planet, travels to his inner world. His "Souvenir amical" seems to be a wink to a blessed youth already long gone. In 1900, in Chateaulin, Brittany, where he lived, he attempted suicide with a razor. Ill and plagued by "the most terrible nightmares of his life", he was saved by his friend Paul Sérusier, who invited him to his home in Châteauneuf-du-Faou and helped him out of his depression. Sérusier gave him his old studio and the two artists helped each other to create. The death of his idol, Paul Gauguin, in 1903 was a fatal blow to his morale. Séguin died in January 1904: "Poor Séguin, as you have seen, died without any suffering, not knowing him, he went out like a lamp. At the age of 37, his eyelids closed over his dreams. Armand SEGUIN (Paris, 1869 - Châteauneuf-du-Faou, 1903) 28 x 23 cm Séguin arrived in Le Pouldu in 1891 at the age of 22. He quickly became Paul Gauguin's favourite disciple and inseparable companion. Gauguin prefaced his first exhibition in 1895 at Le Barc de Boutteville, and Maurice Denis gave it a glowing review in "La Plume". He was off to a flying start, but it would be a long time before he got off the ground, after his death. Gauguin tried to take him with him to the Islands, but Séguin was unable to accompany him for lack of funds. Gauguin asked him again, but to no avail. Séguin, always in financial difficulties, made a living from his gift for illustration. He had an instinct for line, and adapted easily to the arabesques of Art Nouveau. The freshness of this watercolour owes as much to the suppleness of its curves as to the science of its wash. He was a specialist in watercolours, and in 1897 exhibited a series of fan designs featuring Breton women in the foreground against a background of the sea dotted with boat silhouettes. Here, the woman seems to be observing this sea of workers with a nonchalant distance, as if through a porthole, her forms and clothes undulating and merging into a hemmed wave; her hair, like a tear, slides into the corner of her eye. The sea is green and yellow, the boats red. This almost colour-blind alteration of vision invites us to dream, to travel. Séguin, failing to follow Gauguin to the other side of the planet, travels to his inner world. His "Souvenir amical" seems to be a wink to a blessed youth already long gone. In 1900, in Chateaulin, Brittany, where he lived, he attempted suicide with a razor. Ill and plagued by "the most terrible nightmares of his life", he was saved by his friend Paul Sérusier, who invited him to his home in Châteauneuf-du-Faou and helped him out of his depression. Sérusier gave him his old studio and the two artists helped each other to create. The death of his idol, Paul Gauguin, in 1903 was a fatal blow to his morale. Séguin died in January 1904: "Poor Séguin, as you have seen, died without any suffering, not knowing him, he went out like a lamp. At the age of 37, his eyelids closed over his dreams.