Breton women feeding the pigs

This zincograph illustrates how Émile Bernard used the Breton motif as a testing ground for Synthetism. Two barefoot Breton women feed pigs in front of a semicircular arched doorway opening onto an undefined interior. Unlike the more tormented figures of Paul Gauguin, Bernard's Breton women, particularly in the Volpini albums, remain devoid of marked psychological expression. The artist favors rustic monumentality: large hands, disproportionately large feet, and massive silhouettes. The kneeling woman almost merges with the animals thanks to the undulating lines and the unity of tone between the figures. Through these flat, outlined, and synthetic planes, Bernard exalts the materiality of the bodies and the rustic simplicity of the peasantry, where the figures appear as rooted as the trees that surround them.