on the other side, he painted a portrait of his friend meijer de haan, a dutch artist and protegÉ he in brittany. gauguin turned meijer de haan into a devilish creature given to reading philosophical books that dealt with the relationship of men to god, like john milton's "paradise lost" -- another reference to the theme of the fallen angel. for all his tongue-in-cheek playfulness, a deep current of spirituality runs through gauguin's work. raised a catholic, he rejected the institution of the church, but not the faith, nor its imagery. a sculpture of christ being taken down from the cross outside the church of nizon inspired "green christ." he moved the setting to the cliffs and dunes above le pouldu. he was drawn to brittany's humble, direct forms of worship. the chapel at trÉmalo near pont-aven captures the essence of the region's homespun christianity. one painter described brittany as a primitive world, where paganism lurked behind a veneer of christianity. gauguin transported the crucifix to a breton landscape. in "yellow christ," he employed a fiery, unnatural palette and outl