Of course, it is no accident this particular stretch of the wild Bréton coastline had as strong an influence on Gauguin as it did. The physical character of Le Pouldu closely matched the mental character of the artist. This region, unlike other Bréton towns such as Pont-Aven, had not been touched by the industrial age or modernization, and the way of life of the peasants was still that of the middle-ages in costume, superstition and labour (Welsh-Ovrachov 17). Gauguin himself noted this to van Gogh through their correspondence: as Gauguin wrote, “Here in Brittany the peasants have a medieval air and do not have the sense that Paris exists or that we are in 1889” (Qtd. Malingue, 151). Ives even notes in the catalogue of The Lure of the Exotic that Le Pouldu’s “bleak scenery seems to have suited the painter’s mood and his bitter disappointment at the poor reception of his work in Paris” (Ives, 65). Likewise, Ives observes that “Repeatedly, [Gauguin] referred to himself as ‘a savage’ and with considerable pride pointed out his uniquely exotic origins” (the artist was born in the distant country of Peru with close ties to its royal family) (Ives, 3). This similarity between the wild coast and the savage artist explains why Gauguin was so easily drawn to the wild, untouched nature, the ‘medieval air’ of Le Pouldu.