3-002-592 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Repose, 1867. This drawing dates from perhaps the most formally successful decade of Breton's career. The artist represents a young woman lost in dreamy contemplation as she pauses for rest during the harvest. Her fellow harvesters continue to work behind her, and there are haystacks visible in the distance. The contrast is notable between the highly finished manner of the resting woman and the far sketchier treatment of the landscape background and secondary figures. The resting woman is characteristic of Breton's classicizing treatment of form in the 1860s, but it may also reflect an awareness of more recent sources.