Petanque Players in Brittany

Prints and Drawings

1890

Charles Laval
French, 1862-1894

This drawing of the French lawn game pétanque shows bowlers in the countryside of Brittany. Their traditional costume appealed to Laval, who had been born and raised in Paris. City dwellers frequently traveled to Brittany in search of a preindustrial age, and it was there that Laval met Paul Gauguin. The two stayed at the same guesthouse in 1886 and—in an extension of their search for the otherworldly—they traveled to Panama and Martinique together in 1887. The friendship came to an end, however, when both artists developed feelings for Madeleine Bernard. Laval married her, but he died from tuberculosis just a few years later.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Charles Laval
Title: Petanque Players in Brittany
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1890
Medium: Graphite on cream wove paper, laid down on off-white wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed lower right, in graphite: "1890- / CL"
Dimensions: Primary support: 27.2 × 41.2 cm (10 3/4 × 16 1/4 in.); Secondary support: 28 × 43 cm (11 1/16 × 16 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.967
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/198868/manifest.json

Karen Kristine Rechnitzer Pope, “Gauguin and Martinique,” unpublished dissertation, University of Texas (1981), p. 239, no. 9, as Joueurs de Boules.

Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” Mar. 15-June 15, 2014, no cat.

Josefowitz collection, by 1981 [Pope 1981]; sold, Christie’s, Paris, May 23, 2007, lot 90, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Suggested Terms

Currently Off View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Exhibition History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.