Jules Breton

M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1891
Mrs. Jacob H. Schiff (acquired from the above)
Sale: Estate of Mrs. J.H. Schiff, American Art Association Anderson Galleries Inc., New York, December 7, 1933, lot 59, illustrated
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)
Private Collection, Long Island, New York (by descent from the above)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, October 29, 2002, lot 136, illustrated
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale and sold: Sotheby's, New York, October 25, 2005, lot 35, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Salon, 1891, no. 228
Educational Alliance, New York

Ludovic Baschet, ed., Catalogue Illustré de Peinture et de Sculpture, Salon de 1891, Paris, 1891, p. 228
Hollister Sturges, Jules Breton and the French Rural Tradition, exh. cat., Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1982-1983, pp. 113-4
Annette Bourrut Lacouture, Jules Breton, Painter of Peasant Life, New Haven, 2003, p. 203

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is unlined, which in itself is quite remarkable. On the reverse there are three small reinforcements which have been applied to support small scratches in the paint. One scratch above the figure has been retouched. Elsewhere in this area the restorations are slightly older and are situated directly above the headdress of the girl as it falls across her right shoulder. Elsewhere in the picture there do not appear to be any restorations. Breton has painted in a fairly rugged technique and while the cleaning and varnishing could be improved and perhaps the surface could be relaxed slightly, no improvement to the retouching, which is minimal at present, is recommended. The painting is in very good state.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

In his Un Peintre Paysan, Breton celebrated the fields of Artois' countryside: "At different seasons, silken barley, tall, supple wheat, Lucerne in bloom, blue flax, yellow rape seed and the little oil poppies... sway in the breeze near the ripening crops... Nowhere do I feel myself so filled with love for this nourishing land" (as quoted in Bourrut Lacouture, p. 34). Breton's connection to the land was matched by his love of its people. As the self-proclaimed "peasant who paints peasants" Breton tightened his focus on a single girl in a number of related paintings from the 1870s and 1880s. As Annettte Bourrut Lacouture explains, one particular young woman of Courrières "was a favorite with the painter and he repeated [her figure] in several paintings and drawings, including a highlighted charcoal sketch of 1887" (Bourrut Lacouture, p. 202). While aspects of this girl appeared in earlier paintings and would continue to influence works produced soon after, it was not until 1891 that Summer would show the model in the same pose as in the sketch -- now surrounded by golden wheat stalks, resting on loamy green grass speckled with the blooms of native flowers. The warm tones of her clothing and skin are similar in palette to the wheat behind her and to the earthy browns, grays, and greens of the ground. Breton's increasing fascination with light effects is evidenced by the warm yellows of her kerchief, rosy pink cheek, and creamy arms, all awash with the specific qualities of late afternoon sun. Interestingly, the large rake's handle appears longer than the girl is tall--a powerful symbol of her difficult field labor, further emphasized by the foreshortened perspective, which removes any glimpse of sky or landscape horizon.

Unlike many of his works in which peasants carry out their daily tasks, Summer lacks a specific narrative force; in her solitude against the wheat, the girl can stand as an emblem of Breton's rural vision. Indeed the very title of the painting has an allegorical feel, immediately identifying the girl with the season. Moreover, with her lovely face and soft curves resting against soft grasses, the figure has a sensual aspect, which reveals the artist's emotional bond with the countryside. With Summer placed before him, Breton (and in turn his viewer) could ignore the increased threats a booming coal mining industry and related industrial developments posed for Artois' unspoiled lands in the 1880s. Despite his best attempts to remove all hints of modern life from his canvas, there is an ironic twist: the flax and poppy flowers Breton depicts with such care would dramatically influence the region's industrialization, as the oil pressed from the vegetation was highly desirable in lamp lights and combustible engines. Overall, though, Summer is a perfect encapsulation of Breton's belief that the special purity of rural life must be held above all else. As he explained "I do not see everything as beautiful, for sure: but I am so often moved by what I see of...the inner nature of things...that is what moves me more than anything else" (as quoted in Bourrut Lacouture, p. 233). It is not surprising, then, that the sculptor Corneille Henri Theunissen would later choose Summer as the symbolic model on his monument to Jules Breton's lasting legacy erected in Courrières in 1920.