1848 -1906 · Self-portrait, peasant women and the dignity of everyday life

Jules Breton gives peasant women, knitters and relatives a stable presence: the precise portrait meets an idealized but never anonymous rural figure.

Jules Breton is best known for his rural scenes, but the portrait and the isolated figure constitute the human base of his work. Born in Courrières into a family linked to the land, he studied in Ghent then in Paris and returned regularly to Artois. His self-portraits follow the young artist's evolution towards a recognized official position. The Man with the Pipe and other male effigies use few accessories to focus attention on character. The Man with the Pipe and other male effigies use few accessories to focus attention on character. The Man with the Pipe and other male effigies use few accessories to focus attention on character. The Man with the Pipe and other male effigies use few accessories to focus attention on character. The Peasant Women who knit, hold a candle or return from the fields belong to genre scenes, but Breton often treats them with the frontality and dignity of the portrait. Hands, regional clothing and the expression gives an identity beyond the rural type. This attention remains linked to an idealization: fatigue, poverty and social conflict are softened for the Salon. Last flowers or Woman with a fine candle add a symbolic dimension to the presence. The collection thus makes it possible to distinguish personal resemblance, work figure and rural poetry. The collection thus makes it possible to distinguish personal resemblance, work figure and rural poetry. The selection "Portraits and figures of Jules Breton" notably compares A peasant woman who knits and Self-portrait. Its reading favors the material.

At Breton, the peasant woman almost becomes a portrait as soon as the work of the hands, the clothing and the gaze cease to be simple accessories of the landscape.