Described as "one of the primary academic painters of the nineteenth century", Jules Breton painted romanticized subjects in a realist style, especially bucolic scenes of peasants working in fields. For some years after his death, his paintings were used as examples of 'bad' painting by modernists, who derided his literal themes of "work, family, home and hearth", but after abstraction lost some of its dominance, his work came back into public favor.

Breton's subject matter was familiar to him from childhood. He was born in a rural area in north western France and was raised in Courriéres by family members who had much respect for the farm land and first-hand familiarity with those who tended it. His f...