In 1866, a first group of artists known as " the seven original fishermen " and made up of Americans, settled at Pont-Aven, a small Breton village. They were Robert Wylie, Charles Way, Mores Wight, Shinn, Champney and Bridgman. This was just the beginning. From Paris, from Philadelphia, they came to paint in Pont-Aven
Three hotels accommodated them – the Hôtel des Voyageurs, the Hôtel du Lion d’Or, and the Pension Gloanec. And gradually, the inhabitants too. Julia Guillou became the manageress of the Hôtel des Voyageurs in 1871, and then the owner in 1878. Roland Hersard de la Villemarqué, a nephew of the author of the Barzaz Breiz, was to stay several times at this hotel which became the " Hôtel Julia ". In his " memories of Pont-Aven " (unpublished), he calls the hostess " mother of the fellow artists ". It was true that she loved them, took care of those who could not pay, built studios, exhibited the pictures.
In the 80’s Pont-Aven was compared to Barbizon (an artists’ village near Fontainebleau, 50 km. from Paris). Rubbing shoulders with the French, there were " Pompiers " and Impressionists, Americans, English, Danes. In 1885, it was estimated that there were about a hundred artists staying there.
They painted the sea, water-mills, the Bois d’Amour, the chapel of Tremalo in Nizon. And, of course, breton women, the " chouans " (Royalist insurgents), and interior scenes of farmhouses.

Between work sessions, the artists went " curio hunting ", and amongst them was Roland Hersart and his friend Delavallée. The barrister Chamaillard from Quimper began painting and decorating furniture. They did a theatrical production in the ruins of the castle of Rustefan representing the ballad of Geneviève de Rustefan and the painters played jokes on the English tourists with apparitions of ghosts.
The Impressionist painter Renoir, staying at the Hotel Julia, almost fought a duel with an inspector of the Registration Department called Garabi. An English admiral took his daughters in a boat to go bathing in the sea.
And Julia Guillou built annexes and artists’ studios. The Pension Gloanec, where Gauguin stayed in 1886, was renovated. Gauguin, with the painter Emile Bernard, laid the foundations of what they were to call " synthétisme ".

In Pont-Aven, new styles were developed : cloisonisme, synthétisme, symbolism, nabis. The 1889 exhibition at the café Volpini in Paris, bore the title " Groupe impressionniste et synthétiste".

Some of the most famous artists of Pont-Aven