Description
A lone peasant girl pauses her work to listen to a lark singing in the distance. Her emotional response to this moment of natural beauty is accentuated by the glow of the sun rising behind her, suffusing the landscape with golden light.
Jules Breton specialized in scenes of rustic life in the countryside. Having been raised in the rural village of Courrières in northern France, he admired the people living there for their resourcefulness and connection to nature and gained immense popularity by painting them in his idealized style.
Provenance
Bought from the artist by George A. Lucas, Paris, for Samuel P. Avery in 1885 [this and the following information according to Omaha 1982-83]; sold to Henry Field (died 1890), Chicago, 1885; by descent to his wife, Mrs. Florence Lathrop Field; transferred to the Art Institute in October 1894; given to the Art Institute, 1916.
Accession Number
94841
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
110.6 × 85.8 cm (43 1/2 × 33 3/4 in.); Framed: 142.3 × 116.9 cm (56 × 46 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Henry Field Memorial Collection
