Jules Breton

Durand-Ruel, Paris
W. P. Wilstack, Philadelphia (aquired from the above in 1898)
Sale, Philadelphia, October 29, 1954, no. 17
Sam T. Freeman Collection (acquired from the above sale)

Paris, Salon, 1869, no. 326

Edmond About, "Salon 1869," RDM, June 1, 1869
Arthur Baignères, Peintres et Sculpteurs à l'Exposition de 1869, Paris, 1869, p. 268
Théophile Gautier, "Le Salon de 1869," L'Illustration, 1869, vol. 53, p. 342
Album Boetzel, 1869, no. 6 (illustrated with an engraving)
Paul-Casimir Perier, "Propos d'Art à l'occasion du Salon de 1869," Revue du Salon, Paris, 1869, p. 326
André Michel, Notes sur l'Art Moderne, Peinture à travers les Salons, Paris, 1895, pp. 145-46
Annette Bourrut Lacouture, Jules Breton, Painter of Peasant Life, New Haven, 2002, discussed p. 132

Critics regard the late 1860's as the time when Breton's style and talents evolved into his mature period.   Les Mauvaises Herbes is a dynamic example of this period, the painting is a bold composition with striking light effects and active figures.    The burning of field weeds took place after the harvest, when the gleaners had completed their foraging, and the event signaled the coming of winter, as illustrated by the peasant's heavy clothing.  The main figure stands centrally placed in the composition as he hurls the fiery ball towards the sky.  His serious concentration contrasts with the two young children who eagerly approach, having seen the fire from their home in the distance.  Painted with a naturalism reminiscent of Millet's Sower (Museum of Fine Arts, Boson), Breton captured the main figure at the dramatic moment of his labor, rather different from his Women harvesting potatoes (The Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, Florida) whose figures display a more nobilized grandeur.

Breton exhibited Les Mauvaises Herbes at the Salon of 1869, the same year as his large Brittany work, Un grand pardon breton (Museo de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba), where critics praised the "penetrating charm" of the painting.  Vincent Van Gogh was a great admirer of Breton, there are over forty references to Breton and his paintings in Van Gogh's correspondences.  Although it is unknown whether Van Gogh saw Les Mauvaises herbes in person at Durand-Ruel, or whether he only viewed an engraving, he did mention the painting in a letter to his brother Théo in April 1878.  After commenting on artists of high spirit and great introspection he wrote, "And should we not learn from works such as that of Rembrandt, or the Mauvaise herbes by Breton, or the Heures de la journée by Millet" (Vincent Van Gogh, Correspondance Générale, Paris, Gallimard, 1990, letter no. 121, from April 3, 1978, p. 260).