Xavier de Langlais - Breton Artist and Activist

Breton Artist and Activist

A supporter of the Breton National Party, he edited and illustrated its literature. In 1924, he made contact with Ar Seiz Breur, a group of nationalistic Breton artists formed by Jeanne Malivel and René-Yves Creston.

With James Bouillé, an architect and member of Ar Seiz Breur, he established the art workshop "An Droellenn" (The Spiral) in 1935. This was dedicated to the revival of Breton Christian art. He created several religious murals: in the chapel of St. Joseph's College in Lannion, the Grand Seminary in Saint-Brieuc, the Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer Étel Church in La Richardais, and the stations of the cross, La Baule.

He was a prolific writer in the Breton language and was an ardent promoter of orthographic reform would create characters for the specific dialect of Vannes Breton that he practiced. He held discussions in Vannes in 1936, but the project only reached fruition 1941. In that year he moved to Rennes, where he worked as an artistic and literary critic, writing a regular column in La Bretagne, a pro-Marshal Philippe Pétain collaborationist newspaper edited by Yann Fouéré.

He had met Roparz Hemon in Paris in 1926 and was invited by him to join the editorial board of the Breton literary magazine Gwalarn. He published plays, poems and novels and focused especially on the Arthurian cycle. He also participated in the revival of the publishing and distribution of books in Breton in 1949, and participated in the summer school Bretonnante Kamp Etrekeltiek ar Vrezhonegerien, founded in 1948, and which still exists.

He helped in the dissemination of books in Breton, and later became chairman of the Celtic Circle in Rennes. He continued to espouse Breton nationalism throughout his life.