ABSTRACT
Brittany was a region of France which for specifiable but differing reasons became the object of attention for non-Bretons, a place to visit, and a fit subject for Fine Art. Betham-Edwards then goes on to discuss the various improvements in Breton agriculture and the concomitant improvements in social conditions. In 1953 iodine was still being produced in Brittany from seaweed gathered on the Breton coast. Seaweed gathering for manure and the production of kelp for iodine cannot be accurately described as 'one of the manifestations of Breton primitivism'. By that decade tourism had become a major source of income within the Breton economy. For many visitors in the nineteenth century Breton costumes were regarded as quaint and picturesque, and perceived as signs of the traditionalness and archaicness of Breton culture. Until the French Revolution, the dress of Breton peasants, though different from that worn by peasants in other regions, was a class costume.
