Jules Breton

Governor Edwin Denison Morgan, New York (possibly acquired circa 1873 and sold, his sale: Chickering Hall, New York, January 13-14, 1886, lot 151)
George I. Seney, Brooklyn (acquired at the above sale and sold: American Art Association, New York, February 11-13, 1891, lot 99)

Paris, Salon, 1870, no. 375
New York, National Academy of Design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Centennial Loan Exhibition of Paintings Selected from Private Galleries, 1876, no. 15 (lent by Edwin Denison Morgan)

A. Baignères, "L'Exposition officielle de 1870," Revue Contemporaine, June 15, 1870, pp. 485-511
A. Duparc, "Le Salon de 1870," Le Correspondant, pp., 929-55, vol. 82
Henri Delaborde, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1870, vol. 87, n.p.
Camille Lemonnier, Salon de Paris 1870, Paris, 1870, n.p.
Marius Chaumelin, L'art contemporain, Paris, 1873, p. 434
Edward Strahan, ed., The Art Treasures of America, Philadelphia, 1877, vol. III, p. 14, illustrated opposite p. 13 and in the 1977 facsimile edition, pp. 4, 12, illustrated opposite p. 6
Georges Lafenestre, L'art vivant, la Peinture et la Sculpture aux Salons de 1868 à 1877, Paris, 1881, pp. 173-4
Jules Antoine Castagnary, Salons, 1857-1879, Paris, 1892, vol. 1, p. 421
Jules Breton, La Vie d'un Artiste/Art et Nature, Paris, 1890, pp. 300-4
Marius Vachon, Jules Breton, Paris, 1919, p. 143
Virginie Demont-Breton, "Nos amis artistes" in Les Maisons que j'ai connues, vol. 2, pp. 14, 68
Densie Delouche, Les Peintres de la Bretagne avant Gauguin, (dissertation), Lille, 1978, vol. 2, pp. 738-9
Madeleine Fidell-Beaufort, "Jules Breton in America: Collecting in the 19th Century," in Jules Breton and the French Rural Tradition, exh. cat., Omaha, 1982, pp. 52, 56, illustrated p. 53, fig. 14
Annette Bourrut Lacouture, "Jules Breton: une Source au bord de la mer," in Bretagne, images et mythes, Rennes, n.d., pp. 110, 119, 122, n. 12, illustrated p. 118
Annette Bourrut Lacouture, Jules Breton, Painter of Peasant Life, exh. cat., Paris, 2000, pp. 148-9, illustrated p. 148, fig. 116

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This canvas is unlined, which is particularly unusual for a picture of this size. On the reverse there are numerous small patches in the center, on the left side and in the lower right corner. These correspond to dense and little damages to the surface however despite these, which are not an issue to be worried about, the picture is in very good condition. Under ultraviolet light in the lower left corner accurate and nicely applied restorations have been applied beneath the basket of laundry in the back of the kneeling figure in the dark dress, in the knees of the kneeling figure with the blue skirt, and beneath the chin of the other kneeling figure with the red shawl, all in the lower left. Elsewhere there are patches of old varnish visible under ultraviolet light and a few very random retouches yet none that attend to any abrasion or discoloration, which is the main fear with pictures like this. There is the odd isolated restoration clearly visible, mainly corresponding to the little patches on the back, and another retouch in the toes of the kneeling figure on the lower right. There is a conspicuous absence of any restoration of note in the sky, except for one spot in the upper left quadrant. Overall the picture is in beautiful state. The paint layer is clean and although some of the stretcher marks are slightly visible, the picture should most likely be hung as is.
"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."

As a result of government-sponsored ethnographic studies in the nineteenth century, Brittany, France's northwestern province, was deemed a rustic, if not entirely archaic, region; its people held firmly to the language, religion and cultural traditions of their sixth century Celtic ancestors. This inspired throngs of travelers curious to experience the uniquely preserved culture firsthand. One such visitor was Jules Breton, who visited Brittany for the first time in 1865, staying in and around the Baie de Douarnenez, notable for its tuna and sardine fisheries (Bourrut Lacouture, Jules Breton, pp. 137-9). During his stays, Breton explored the sandy beaches, observing washerwomen and other hard-working peasants, recording their daily tasks in complex arrangements on large canvases such as The Washerwomen of the Breton Coast.  The rediscovery of this major Breton work, previously thought lost and known only by a black and white photogravure, affords the opportunity to reexamine an essential period of the artist's early development.

Numerous sketches of the Douarnenez period demonstrate how carefully the artist observed the working women's forms: a solitary figure stiff-backed from carrying a weighty laundry basket, the long curves of arms outstretched scrubbing clothes.  While many of these sketches were not made with a specific painted composition in mind, several did come in use for the multi-figural compositions of the late 1860s and 1870s, such as A Spring on the Seashore (1866) and The Washerwomen of the Breton Coast.  While both works capture Jeanne Clavet, a sardine processor and Breton's frequent model, surrounded by her fellow working women in the midst of their daily tasks (in A Spring stoically carrying a water-jug, and in The Washerwomen rolling up her sleeves in preparation), the two paintings differ in their compositional and aesthetic concerns. A Spring suggests the monumental strength and stoicism of the working women, recalling classical Antiquity in details such as the carefully arranged triangular composition of the central figures and the water-jug carried atop Jeanne's head.  Upon its exhibition at the Exposition universelle in 1867, critics recognized Spring's orderly, "realistic" "arrangement" and considered the women both real and idealized—recognizable Brittany laborers, yet elevated by Breton's composition which follows academic rules (as quoted in Bourrut Lacouture, Jules Breton, Painter of Peasant Life, p. 148).  While conceived at the same time as the well-received A Spring, The Washerwomen of the Breton Coast excited (and troubled) the artist in a new way. While the present work perfectly captures the balance and harmony of the strong-bodied women and their seemingly mundane task of scrubbing clothes at a shallow pool at the Pointe de la Vache, here the overall effect is a more natural expression: the grouping of the women is less organized, their relationships to one another based more on the work they do then in classically inspired lines; they are surrounded by rough rocks rhythmically receding, ending with the figure of Marie Douaré, who looks across her shoulder at the viewer (Bourrut Lacouture, Jules Breton, Painter of Peasant Life, p. 144-9).

While Breton's fellow artists would expand upon these new methods of naturalism in the 1880s, upon The Washerwomen's debut at the Paris Salon of 1870, critics seemed unable to recognize the innovation of Breton's masterpiece.  However, the self-taught historian of American art collections and early arbiter of taste, Edward Strahan (the pseudonym for Earl Shinn) was captivated by the very elements that troubled some French critics. In his The Art Treasures of America, Strahan recognized the distinct tasks of "salutary labor" of Breton's washerwomen and the "unapparent skill and ease with which the painter collects these figures into a beautiful and well-balanced group, without affectation or conscious attitudes... is only a beginning to his art" (Strahan, p. 4).  Strahan had the opportunity to see the Breton in the impressive collection of the Honorable Edwin Denison Morgan, whose fortune came as a wholesale grocer before turning to civic duties as Governor of New York (1859-1862), United States Senator (1863-69) and the first chair of the Republican National Committee, where he was an important advisor to Abraham Lincoln.  As his terms of service drew to a close, Morgan began an impressive art buying campaign, sending various dealers and agents throughout Europe to acquire the best works by artists such as William Bouguereau, Eugen von Blaas, and Jehan Georges Vibert.  It remains unclear exactly where or from whom Morgan may have acquired the present work. Samuel P. Avery, the great art agent responsible for linking many American collectors with French artists, supervised the sale of Morgan's collection in 1886, and noted that it was formed as the result of a purchasing campaign from 1873-1874. The art agent George Lucas' diaries refer to the sale of an unnamed Breton painting in the spring of 1870 for Morgan, which may have been the present work (Fidell-Beaufort, p. 60, n. 39).

 Either purchase date marks The Washerwomen as one of the first major Bretons to enter an American collection. While the pace of art collecting in America was accelerated by the rapidly growing economy at the end of the 1870s and into the 1880s, many of Breton's collectors first discovered his work (either directly or via their agents) in 1867 at the Exposition universelle in Paris, where several Bretons were hung.  Samuel Avery met Breton at the Exposition and commissioned his first work from the artist, A Brittany Shepherdess, which was soon hung in New Jersey Central Railroad president John Taylor Johnston's New York private gallery on Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue.  The canvas by a then relatively unknown painter attracted the attention of Johnston's fellow (and rival) collectors, like his neighbor Morgan, who directed considerable influence and money to secure a good position on Breton's growing waiting list (Fidell-Beaufort, p. 55).

Morgan promoted Breton's reputation in America (as well as his own as a major collector) by sharing his impressive art collection with friends in his Washington, D.C. and New York homes, where The Washerwomen of the Breton Coast was a visitors' favorite.  When lent to the 1876 New York Centennial art exhibition, Breton's painting attracted large crowds, and ticket proceeds of over $40,000 (approximately $800,000 today) were directed toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art's construction fund.  The composition also generated great interest upon Morgan's estate sale in 1886 (Morgan died in 1883 and the sale took place after the death of his wife).  The Washerwomen was described in the auction catalogue as "one of his most important works" (the undefined "his" of the text easily implying both the artist and his patron's status) and was purchased by George Ingraham Seney (1826-1893).  A self-made man from Astoria, New York, Seney served as president of the Metropolitan Bank of New York in the late 1870s and was a financier of many railroads, with great means to fuel his voracious collecting habit. Seney quickly owned more canvases than his house could hold, but mounting debts required the sale of the majority of the collection in 1885.  The purchase of The Washerwomen was a keystone in Seney's second collection (Fiddell-Beaufort, p. 56).  Yet despite the importance of the work to Breton's early career, his American reputation, and the power of the men who first owned it, by the turn of the nineteenth century the painting disappeared from view and record--only to emerge recently in a private French collection. The Washerwomen of the Breton Coast's exhibition at Sotheby's, New York will be its first public viewing in the United States in over 130 years.