Image source: artic.edu
The Song of the Lark
Artist:Jules Breton
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Art Institute of Chicago, Henry Field Memorial Collection |
| Location History: | The Song of the Lark was painted in Courrières, a rural village in northern France, in 1884. Jules Breton was born and raised in Courrières, and the agricultural landscape and peasant communities of the region became an important subject throughout his work. The painting is signed at the lower left “Jules Breton / Courrières 1884,” directly indicating the place and year associated with its creation. After being completed, the painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1885, where it entered the wider French art world. It was subsequently acquired by the American collector Henry Field in Chicago in 1885. Following Field’s death, his widow Florence Lathrop Field donated the work to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1916, where it remains today as part of the Henry Field Memorial Collection. |
The Song of the Lark (1884) is an acclaimed oil painting created by Jules Breton, a prominent French painter of Realist school. The painting captures the image of a young peasant girl standing on a great expanse of rural field at sunrise. Having stopped doing the arduous work on the field for a while, the girl is standing with her sickle in hand and listening to the lark singing in the skies, invisible to her. Transformed by the bright light of sunrise, the look on her face reflects transcendence and fortitude.
Information Compiled by
Zia Rukshan Zerin