Jules Breton - Painter of Peasant Life

Jules Breton (1827-1906) was a French realist painter highly respected by Vincent van Gogh. 

As one of first "peasant painters," Breton's beautiful scenes of pastoral French life (in which peasant men and women perform their daily work), were very popular during the second part of the nineteenth century.  Collectors in Britain, Ireland and America bought his work.

Despite his popularity the century before, Breton was mostly forgotten during the twentieth century.  He is making a comeback, of sorts, thanks to a new book about him by Annette Bourrut Lacouture.