A Basket of Chips: An Autobiography

Basket of Chips, page 037

Cheer, Romance, mzd Family It was my intention that we were not to be taken as newly weds but as soon as we arrived at our train the very kind guard showed us into a coach compartment and closed the door at once. Whenever a passenger came to that door the guard was there to hurry them off to some other compartment and at every station he guarded us from intrusion. Maybe you think I did not give him a good substantial tip! We stopped at Orleans, the birth place of Joan of Arc. The next day's ride brought us to Nantes and the third day we arrived at Concarno but it was overcrowded with artists so we decided to take a cab for Pont Aven. We had such a beautiful ride through the Sardine country where miles of hedges were made from waste [sardine) tin trimmings. Then we passed through farm districts where the peasant's huts were built of slabs of granite stood on end. We arrived at Pont Aven in good time and engaged pension or board and a cosy little upstairs bedroom with Madam Gloniac. Here we spent the first four months of our married life and such delightful weeks they were! We both painted every day of the time.25 I must tell of the people we found there. The first thing that impressed me was the perfect trust of the Breton people. On taking possession of our quarters I took out my purse and counted out the first month's pay for room and board but Madam refused it and told me to pay at the end of the month, as that was their custom. I said it was my custom to pay in advance and in that way I took no chance of spending or losing the money. But she would not have it. 25 "Their honeymoon was spent at Pont-Aven, a picturesque French village brimming with inspiration for artists . . . . They both painted every day, some- times landscapes and sometimes still life and indoor scenes." Hmwood Art 2% hibition, 4. Working at the center of a favorite impressionist and post-impressionist haunt, Harwood was nevertheless still fascinated by general academic realist tech- nique, and his Child of Britt~~ny ( 1891) is a well-executed picture of a peasant girl seated in a dark, Rembrandtesque interior. Harwood was pursuing a stylistic direction totally in line with his credentials. 37