Provenance: Brittany, France, ex-coll. daughter of the American painter, William Chadwick (1879-1962). The collection included works by Maynard and other important post-impressionists, including Roderic O’Conor, another close family friend.

In 1891, the American painter, John White Alexander (1856 – 1915) travelled to Pouldu, Brittany, where he met Guy Maynard. Alexander’s wife recorded her impressions of the artist:

“He was a man of medium height, rather ill-mannered, his ruddy complexion was framed by a beard and brown hair. He always dressed in a Brittany sailor suit, which he wore for economic reasons and to singularise himself. He hoped secretly to become a genius of the new school one day because he had gone beyond Impressionism and painted interesting still lifes in an experimental style. He had an astonishing flair for discerning the good, the fashionable, and that which went beyond fashion….” 

The paintings of the remarkable Chicago-born artist, Guy Maynard were re-discovered in 1983, when the Phoenix Art Museum mounted its landmark travelling exhibition: Americans in Brittany and Normandy 1860-1910. A mysterious avant-garde figure, part of the circle of Paul Gaugin, his experimental Synthetist compositions and audacious palette, which herald Fauvism, rank him one as of the revolutionary creators of his time. Maynard’s work is exceedingly rare on the market.