Jules Adolphe Breton

Although he is a less well-known artist among the general public today, Breton achieved exceptional success in his own time. He won several medals at the highly prestigious exhibitions of the official Salon, received many commissions from the French state and enjoyed enormous popularity among private collectors. His works were so sought after that he also made copies of his most popular paintings. In addition he was considered a talented poet and writer, and his autobiographical writings offer an interesting glimpse into his life and work. Later in his career Breton’s fame also reached the United States, where his scenes of peasant life were received just as favourably. The Song of the Lark was bought in 1885 by an American art dealer, Samuel P. Avery, who passed the picture on the same year to the collector Henry Field. The painting was part of the valuable collection his wife donated to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1894, where it can still be seen today.

From the page of The Song of the Lark

Breton was not only a celebrated painter but also a talented poet and writer. His extremely successful volume of poems The Fields and the Sea, published in 1875, was received with great acclaim by critics and the great figures of literary life, including Victor Hugo. He then wrote a novel on a rural theme and later published his memoirs, which are invaluable documents for a better understanding of his work as a painter.

From the page of The End of the Working Day