Collection close
Image for Repose
tooltip-icon Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Zero

Download Image
  • arrow_forward_ios
  • arrow_forward_ios
Repose Thumbnail
Repose Thumbnail

Repose

Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton (French, 1827-1906) (Artist)
1867
charcoal and white chalk on blue, thick, heavily textured, cartridge-style laid paper; the blue color comes from blue and red textile fibers in a white furnish
(18th and 19th Centuries )

This drawing dates from perhaps the most formally successful decade of Breton's career. The artist represents a young woman lost in dreamy contemplation as she pauses for rest during the harvest. Her fellow harvesters continue to work behind her, and there are haystacks visible in the distance. The contrast is notable between the highly finished manner of the resting woman and the far sketchier treatment of the landscape background and secondary figures. The resting woman is characteristic of Breton's classicizing treatment of form in the 1860s, but it may also reflect an awareness of more recent sources.

Inscription

"Jules Breton/1867" in charcoal, lower right; "823" on reverse of frame, upper right;"Walters 209" on label attached to reverse of frame, upper left; watermarked, "MFDT" in block letters

Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Purchased by William T. Walters (through George A. Lucas as agent), Baltimore, June 9, 1883 [1]; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

[1] The Diary of George A. Lucas, p. 565.

Exhibitions

2005-2006 The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma.
1982-1983 Jules Breton and the French Rural Tradition. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown.

Conservation

Date Description Narrative
1/1/2002 Treatment examined for exhibition; cleaned; other
Share

Geographies

France (Place of Origin)

Measurements

18 3/4 x 22 5/8 in. (47.6 x 57.5 cm)

Credit Line

Acquired by William T. Walters, before 1879

Location in Museum

Not on view

Accession Number

In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.

37.902

Do you have additional information?

Notify the curator