Jules Breton (Born 1827) was one of the primary academic painters of the nineteenth century. He developed a painting style in which he combined an interest in creating figural types with that of a realist selection of thematic material that reflected the idealism of the classical traditions. For a long period of time his works were out of favor with the supporters of the modernist camp who often used his compositions as convenient examples of so-called "bad-painting," his compositions suggest a timeless world where the workers of the field were characteristically linked with literary elegies that evoked their best qualities, and his paintings were often regarded as containing poetic references.
Breton was from a rural region in the north western part of France. He spent his youth in a small village in the Pas-de-Calais called Courrières. He received his first training in art at the College St. Bertin near St. Omer, not far from Courrières. In 1842, he met Félix de Vigne the painter who was impressed by his youthful talent and persuaded his family to let him study art. So in 1843, he left for Belgium, Ghent in particular, where got the opportunity to study with leading painters, and another teacher from the school. He worked very hard and soon he was a well known artist in Belgium. Trained as an academic artist, he was well aware of other artistic tendencies such as the role of genre painting. Breton finally left for Paris in 1847 with a hope of perfecting his artistic training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
