of it. Doctors advised him to paint less intensively and move away from the Adirondacks to a warmer, less stressful climate. Expatriates in France The Westons visited the French Riviera in 1926, but contrary to doctors' orders settled in the rugged mountains in the French Pyrenees. They found an 11th century farmhouse with a working chapel and bell tower in a farming community near Céret. The Westons bought a small wood stove to warm the room enough for posing in the nude. The painting of the new stove was the first purchase by Duncan Phillips, who went on to acquire the largest public collection of Westons at the Phillips Collection. "Quiet, simple, intimate and hard. It is a region very sympathetic to the pioneer in Harold. Suited to the Quaker in me," wrote Faith. The open fields and sunlight influenced Weston's palette, and his subjects broadened to include all manner of landscapes, figure painting, and still lifes in oil, watercolor, gouache, and etching. At the Spanish sculptor Manolo's suggestion, the Westons went to Paris, France, to exhibit, and they became acquainted with painters working there. Captivated by etching, which was better suited to their small Parisian apartments, Weston experimented with the techniques of hard and soft ground, burin, dry point, and aquatint with and without brush. Weston exhibited his work in Paris, and also rolled-up canvases to ship back to New York City to be shown at the Montross Gallery. They could not afford to live in Europe after the dollar weakened, and so after four productive years, the Westons—now with two small children—returned to America in 1930. The Depression After living for a short period in Greenwich Village the Westons returned to their home and studio in the Adirondack mountains, again living simply. With a small family, he focused increasingly on the everyday: a quilt, plants in the garden, snowshoes. Weston turned out prodigious amounts of artwork in the 1930s. His work was shown frequently in solo and group shows at galleries and museums, including the Phillips Memorial Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art. His painting Green Hat won third prize in painting at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939. Duncan Phillips invited Weston to speak at his gallery several times. "We need you in this course of Gallery discussions for there is no man now painting better able