The Rural Vision: France and America in the Late Nineteenth Century ed. by Hollister Sturges. Illustrated, 96 pages, paperback. Joslyn Art Museum, 1987.
The papers in this volume were first delivered at a symposium organized in conjunction with the exhibition Jules Breton and the French Revival Tradition at the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha Nebraska. While rural life has been the subject of celebration and study since the Renaissance, Jules Breton's paintings of nineteenth-century French peasants raise a particularly interesting set of questions because of the dominance of his vision in his works embody. Honored by the standards of his own age, including election to the prestigious Institute of France. Breton was an artist whose pictures were eagerly sought after by patrons in France, England, and especially America. If his reputation in the history of art has fluctuated, today his work continues to have strong appeal for a wide audience and deserves reevaluation.
To see a painting from the exhibition click here.
