The Zaandam painter Jan Verkade was a member of Les Nabis, a group of French painters around Paul Gauguin in Brittany. They had a marked preference for subjects taken from traditional village life, and worked in a colourful, stylized manner. In 1892 Verkade left for Fiesole in Italy, where he would live for three years. His memories of Brittany and appreciation of 15th-century Italian painting resulted in this charming ‘Breton Madonna.’