Exposition - “Henri Rivière - Mathurin Méheut : Regards japonisants en Bretagne"

Rivière/Méheut, a shared attraction for Japanese art.

For Rivière, who had never been there, it was a Japan dreamt of, but studied and analyzed in minute detail, whose influence was obvious. For Méheut, it was a Japan lived, and one that would inspire him for many years after his return.

Their approach is different, however: Rivière?s prints depict a sensitive nature, from which man is almost always absent, while Méheut?s work focuses on human beings in their environment. Both are lovers of Brittany, fascinated by the Douarnenez region. Brittany was an adopted home for Rivière, who was born in Paris and spent four months of the year there between 1884 and 1920. Méheut, for his part, took the opposite path: he left his native Penthièvre to settle down and conquer Paris?

By exhibiting Henri Rivière at the Mathurin Méheut Museum, the public is offered a logical confrontation of these two worlds, of these two sometimes convergent but more often than not complementary points of view.