 At the time of Gauguin's departure for Tahiti, April 1891, Verkade met Mogens Ballin, who joined Verkade and Sérusier in a sojourn in Brittany, where Paul had worked at Pont-Aven in the preceding years.Responding to the landscape and the embedded religious customs of the country people, and urged on by Sérusier's spiritual expositions, Verkade's religious feelings grew.At Huelgoat he became withdrawn and meditative, attending Mass for the first time.