About the Artwork
This dramatic scene of a fire in a stack of wheat is unusual in the work of Jules Breton, who was mostly known for his portrayals of the rural communities of northern France as peaceful and harmonious with nature. Here, villagers defend their harvest against fire, one of the most feared natural disasters in the countryside in nineteenth-century Europe. Simultaneously idealized and grounded in a direct observation of nature, the realistically rendered figures appear frozen in time –– their bodies bent or turning, their arms outstretched.
Monumental in size, this artwork rivals depictions of significant historic events and mythological themes. By the mid-nineteenth century, artists in France increasingly turned to peasant motifs as a reaction to industrialization and the aftermath of the Revolution of 1848. Breton’s first exhibition of this painting at Ernest Gambart's French Galleries in London in 1856 and then a showing of another variant of the subject at the Paris Salon in 1861 unmistakably announced the arrival of rural subjects as a major theme for high art in France.
Fire in a Stack of Wheat
1856
Jules Breton
1827-1906
French
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 55 × 82 1/2 inches (139.7 × 209.6 cm) Framed: 62 1/8 × 89 3/4 × 3 1/16 inches (157.8 × 228 × 7.8 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund
76.86
Copyright Not Evaluated
Markings
Signed, lower right: Jules Breton
Provenance
The artist, Jules Breton;April 1856, acquired by (Ernest Gambart, London, England);
August 2, 1875, sold by (Christie's, London, England) auction R.C. Naylor, lot 831;
1875, purchased by F.J. Pilgeram;
by 1890, Samuel P. Avery, Jr. (New York, New York, USA);
March 20, 1902, sold by S.P. Avery (New York, New York, USA);
1902, purchased by M. Tanenbaum [for $850];
Albert K. Schneider (New York, New York, USA);
October 14, 1953, sold by (Parke-Bernet, New York, New York, USA) lot 84, through Dr. Goetz for [$450];
Loyola University (Los Angeles, California, USA);
April 24, 1972, sold at (Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California);
February 26, 1976, sold by (Christie's, London, England) through Colnaghi;
1976-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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"Concours pour les prix de Rome Peinture." L'Artiste 27 (1856): p. 193.
"The Exhibition of French Pictures." Art Journal 118 (1856): p. 193.
Third Annual Exhibition of the French School of Fine Arts. Exh. cat., French Gallery at 121 Pall Mall. London, 1856, no. 58.
Salon of 1861. Exh. cat., Palais des Champs-Elysées. Paris, 1861, p. 54, no. 428.
Bellier and Auvray. Dictionnaire des artistes de l'école française, vol. 1. Paris, 1882, p. 164.
Breton, J. The Life of the Artist. New York, 1890, p. 240 (ill.).
Breton, J. Un peintre paysan souveniers et impressions. Paris, 1896, p. 112.
Thieme-Becker. Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstler, vol. 5. Leipzig, 1907-1950, p. 590.
Bulletin of the DIA 56, no. 1: Annual Report (1977): pp. 23, 27, 50 (fig. 25).
The Figure in 19th Century French Painting. Exh. cat., Flint Institute of Arts, et al. Flint, 1978, pp. 50-51, cat. 18 (ill.).
Avery, Samuel P. The Diaries 1871–1882 of Samuel P. Avery, Art Dealer. New York, 1979, p. xlvi, (fig. 55).
Beaufort, M.F. "Fire in a Haystack." Bulletin of the DIA 57, no. 1 (1979): pp. 54-63 (ill.).
Weisberg, G.P. "Realists Resurrected." Art Journal 40 (1980) p. 402 (fig. 34).
The Realist Tradition. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art, et al. Cleveland, 1980, pp. 129-130, (ill.), cat. 95.
Weisberg, G.P., and A. Bourrut Lacouture. "Jules Breton's The Grape Harvest at Château-Lagrange." Arts Magazine 55 (1981): pp. 98-103; pp. 98, 100 (fig. 4).
Varnadoe, K. "Realism's Second String." Art in America (September 1981): pp. 134-141,(ill.).
Jules Breton and the French Rural Tradition. Exh. cat., Joslyn Art Museum, et al. Omaha, 1982, pp. 13, 17, 26, 66-67, cat. 5 (ill.).
Brettell, R.R., and C.B. Brettel. Painters and Peasants in the Nineteenth Century. Geneva, 1983, p. 81, (ill.).
Wissman, F.W. European Vistas: Cultural Landscapes. Detroit, 2000, pp. 86, 106-107 (ill.).
Jules Breton, Painter of Peasant Life. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts and National Gallery of Ireland. Arras, Quimper, and Dublin, 2002, pp. 94, 239-240, cat. 19 (fig. 54).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Jules Breton, Fire in a Stack of Wheat, 1856, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 76.86.
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