It is likely no coincidence that he arranges the shrubbery to conceal the village of Sainte-Pierre on the bay below. One of the early pictures from this period is The Gate , in which Gauguin uses the visual barrier of the farm fence to mark off an area of rustic peace, where animals and people fit harmoniously and unobtrusively into their environment. Gauguin was always interested in religious symbolism and the role it played in the lives of people. Religious themes occur frequently in his work, though we are rather left to wonder about the role of religion in his own life. In 1888, in Vision after the Sermon or Jacob Wrestling with an Angel , he showed how the stylized organization of a Japanese print could represent the Christianity of Brittany.
Space is introduced into the picture by the use of the tree trunk, just as in a Japanese print.
The women in the foreground wear traditional Breton caps. Beyond the trunk, the angel and the man wrestle. This painting again shows the direction in which Gauguin's art was moving. In 1889, painted The Yellow Christ , which shows the three Marys gathered at the foot of the Cross also wearing Breton headgear. A year later, he painted a self-portrait with this picture in the background.