Realism in France

Jules Breton

The Song of the Lark

1884

Oil on canvas, 110.6 × 85.8 cm. Art Institute of Chicago

A young peasant woman with a sickle stops at sunrise to listen to a lark.

• First shown at the Salon of 1885.
• In 1934 it was named "America's Best Loved Picture" in a Chicago newspaper contest.
• Breton was raised in Courrières, northern France, and painted its fields for much of his career.
• A softer, more idealized vision of rural life than Millet's or Courbet's.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain