Jules Breton: Painter of Peasant Life by Annette Bourrut Lacouture
4to. pp. 264. profusely illustrated. chronology. bibliography. hardcover. dw. (fine condition). New Haven: Yale University Press in association with The National Gallery of Ireland, [2002].
rare & out-of-print.
ISBN-10: 0300095759 / ISBN-13: 9780300095753
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Jules Breton (1827-1906), known as one of the first "peasant painters," created beautiful scenes of rural French life and was a highly popular figure among the Salon artists of his era. However, Breton's work became eclipsed by the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, and he was eventually forgotten.
This well-documented book now pays Breton the tribute that he deserves. It traces the development of his career and the forces that influenced him from his childhood through his early training in Belgium and Paris to his years in Brittany. The book presents and discusses a number of important paintings by Breton, some of which have been almost unknown until now, and it shows how they reflect the artist's social and humanitarian concerns as well as his painterly abilities.