Jules Breton (1827 – 1906) was a 19th-century French Naturalist painter. His painting career started when he met another famed painter of that era in 1842 who, impressed by his youthful talent, persuaded his family to allow him to study art and painting. His pursuit for excellence in art and unwavering desire to perfect his artistic training in painting took him to several famous painters and numerous academies of fine arts all over Europe. His paintings are heavily influenced by the French countryside. His keenness to excel in the traditional methods of painting helped make Jules Breton one of the versatile narrators of the rustic beauty and idyllic vision of rural life and its breathtaking ambiance.

Attachment to Nature

His stoic respect for tradition, his love of the land, and especially for his native region remained central to his art throughout his life. His avid attachment to nature also provided the artist with many scenic platforms for his classic compositions later in the painter’s life.

The numerous subjects that he chose for translating them into his painting canvas may be broadly divided into four classes: labor, rest, rural festivals, and religious festivals. After a brief stint trying his hand at painting rural folk in rural settings, he set off to other destinations in Europe in search of excellence and exposure to his latent talent.

After painting a few historical paintings, he had discovered that he was not born to be a painter of historical subjects. Then he returned to native France as though to answer the calls of his childhood memories of nature and of the country which had impressed him in early youth.

His Paintings – Reapers and Return of the Reapers

The Reapers and Return of the Reapers are two of the initial paintings portraying the numerous rural peasant scenes. Breton’s interest in peasant imagery was well established from then on and these paintings are what he is best known for today. Some of these paintings such as ‘The Song of The Lark’, ‘Calling in the Gleaners’, ‘Returning from the Fields’, ‘The Tired Gleaner’, Shepherd’s Star’, ‘The Weeders’,’The Gleaners’, have earned him immense appreciation.

The Gleaners earned him a medal and helped launch Breton’s career. He was one of the first painters who idolized the beauty of rural life the people and the peasant folk in hard labor. His father was a wealthy land or not his mother died when he was very young. He was born close to the land and he saw his subjects for future paintings amongst his life in rural France.

Breton was made commander of the Legion of honor and a foreign member of the Royal Academy of London. His fame continued to grow even after his death in 1934. Breton was a contemporary of Van Gogh although they never met. Van Gogh had shown special appreciation for Breton’s The song of the Lark. A famous novel by Willa Cather was written in 1915 which was inspired by the Song of the Lark by Jules Breton.

Prominent Works of Art

The Song of the Lark

The Song of the Lark is considered one of Jules’s highly regarded works of painting. The title of the painting refers to the melodious voice of a kind of bird called Lark that could be heard at the break of dawn in rural France. The bird’s delicate and melodious voice heard slightly before the dawn is described as resembling the varying notes and pitches of music.

Lark, as a word, is used as a simile to describe the state of mind of a person who is carefree and unaware of the grimmer realities of life. Jules, a noted poet of his days, appears to have given an artistic shape to the feelings of his poetic heart.

The magnificent piece of art skilfully portrays the village lass with her wide open mouth and curious eyes make it appear as though she was in a trance. The sickle in her outstretched hand is indicative of its business at the ground level moments ago. The character depicted in the painting appears completely relieved from its backbreaking engagement a few moments earlier and stands transfixed at the sight of the source of the enchanting voice. That is the bird ‘Lark’ and its melodious voice is The Song of the Lark.

The painting apparently represents the ebullient state of the painter’s mind, his deep-rooted concern for the hardworking rural folk, and his urge to immortalize their rustic simplicity through painting. Despite the hardships in their day-to-day life, these village folks are not oblivious to nature’s soothing beauty. This magnificent piece of painting has earned the famous painter lots of acclaim, accolades, and monetary rewards from places far from the shores of France, like America and England.

An Americal Author Willa Cather wrote a book titled ‘The Song of the Lark’ in 1915. The book tells a story of a talented artist born in a small town in Colorado. She wanted to develop her singing talent and, hence, moves to the developed part of America, Chicago, a burgeoning industrial hub. The ambitious young heroine, Thea Kronborg, wanted to become a well-trained pianist, a better piano teacher. When the teacher hears her voice, he encourages her to pursue vocal training instead of becoming a piano teacher.

The Peasant Girl Knitting

Breton drew inspiration for his paintings by observing rural life around his native village of Courrières in France. His style was realism, many of his paintings, including this one, is a portrait with medium oil on canvas. This painting was created in 1870.

The Weeders

The medium here is oil on canvas. here was another painting created with minor variations with the same title. This variation was created in 1860 and was exhibited in the salon in 1861. This became very popular in the salon. They considered it almost a religious picture.

The painting shows a group of women working in the fields. One of the women appears to be and entranced by the sun dipping on the horizon. One of the critics at the Salon, Theophile Gautier, thought the solitary weeder standing at the extreme left of the painting looking out into the Sun, was very like the peasant heroine in George Sand’s work, Claudie. This painting was formally known as The Pulse Gatherers. In his autobiography, Breton makes a mention of Count Duchatel buying the Weeders and later requesting a companion piece for it.

The scene must have been similar to what Breton noticed in his native village of Courrières. Courrières is a small ex-coal mining commune in the north of France. The weeders are engrossed in ridding the field of weeds and thistle. Both the sun and the moon were visible in the painting. This painting is one of the earlier paintings of Breton around the time he started showing interest in painting the day-to-day activities of peasants in the countryside.

Jules Breton was ranked among the world’s best painters of that era. His obsession to relate himself to the pristine beauty of the nature around him brought him back to his native village after his study of that art under several well-known painters in other parts of Europe. The hardships that the rural women were undergoing provided him to idealize their plight by making the rural folk and nature around the main theme of paintings.

Though painting peasants and rural folks in their natural rural settings was not yet a subject matter of choice among the mainstream painters of that time, Breton s magical touch with oil on canvas painting with peasants as artistic subject hit a popular chord.

It is said that Van Gogh, the well-known painters of that era walked 87 miles to see these pieces of Breton’s artwork. These mesmerizing features of Breton’s attempt with his magical brush to bring to life the difficult labor and the rough qualities of peasants came to be catalysts for idealizing the peasant labor in the fields.

In this oil on canvas painting, the veil of clouds could be seen floating higher into the edge of the horizon and making way for the colorful rays of the setting sun to light up the path of the peasant women back to their homes after a hard day’s labor. The painter has painted the three laborers so delicately that they appear fresh and beautiful despite hard day’s labor in the fields.

Girls at First Communion, in Courrieres, 1855

This masterpiece was painted in 1855. It was an ideal painting. Artist signature can be found on the lower right. The artwork can be found in Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris’s art collection.

Last Flowers

The village girl is collecting flowers in this picture. Winter has already arrived and you can see snow on the ground. The last flowers of the season out of the bed and you can see from the expression of the picker that she is keen to remove as many as she can.

The few colours in the painting come from the flower themselves and the garment worn by the peasant girl. The light shining through the background appears to be sunrise and gives brightness to the painting.

Summer

This painting shows a peasant worker woman relaxing in between work. The colors of the crops behind her and that of her headscarf add bright color to the painting. The long stick in at hands may indicate that she is a herder of some sort. The young woman appears to be in deep thought while also looking at the viewer. The painting appears to have been inspired by the beautiful French fields during or a little before the harvest season.

Landscape at Courrières (Landschaft bei Courrières) 1860

This 1860 painting by Jules Breton shows a woman and a child passing through a waterway in what appears to be a field. The picture is separated visually by the trees with the two people walking seen on the left side of the painting and a clear view of the waterway on the right side. Some houses and what appears to be a minaret of a church can be seen at a distance. The bent posture of the walkers appears to tell the viewer that their walk is not easily made.