|
Jules Breton
French Naturalist painter, author & poet
born 1 May 1827 - died 5 July 1906
Also known as: Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton, Adolph Aime Louis.
Student of: Martin Drolling (1752-1817) in 1847,
Hendrik Van der Haert (1790-1846) in 1843,
Félix de Vigne (1806-1862) in 1843,
Baron Gustave
Wappers (1803-1874) in 1846.
Brother of: Emile Breton (1831-1902).
Father of: Virginie Demont-Breton (1859-1935).
Friend of: François Bonvin (1817-1887),
Gustave Brion (1824-1877).
Son-in-law of: Félix de Vigne (1806-1862) in 1858.
Member of: Institute of France (from 1886); Légion d'Honneur (from
1861).
Student at: Academy of Ghent (from 1843); College St. Bertin,
Courrières.
As one of the primary academic painters of the nineteenth century, Jules
Breton evolved a painting style that combined a realist selection of
thematic material with an interest in creating figural types that
reflected the idealism of the classical traditions. Jules Breton’s
paintings were often regarded as containing poetic references and Jules
Breton’s compositions suggest a timeless world where the workers of the
field symbolically were linked with literary elegies that evoked their
best qualities. Although Jules Breton’s works were out of favor for a
long period of time, and Jules Breton’s compositions were often used as
convenient examples of so-called "bad-painting" by supporters of the
modernist camp who panned any style whose goal was to portray the trials
of the human condition instead of being dedicated to destroying the
definiing characteristics of great traditional art. Breton's celebration
of human values of work, family, home and hearth did not fit into their
nihilistic paradigm, despite Jules Breton’s poignant and poetic themes
painted with a compositional force and sophistication of technique that
clearly places him amongst the greatest artists of Jules Breton’s time.
Breton's paintings have returned to public consciousness through recent
exhibitions and an interest in collecting Jules Breton’s works by
private patrons and museums. He is an artist who has benefitted greatly
from the long over due revisionist reappraisal of nineteenth century
academic painting.
View artworks’ titles of oil painting old master Breton Jules France
1827-1906
0 Le Pardon De Kergoat
0 The Recall of the Gleaners
0 The Vintage at Chateau Lagrange |
