  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.
  
  
  Title
  Fire in a Stack of Wheat
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1856
  
  Artist
  Jules Breton
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1827-1906
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  French
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  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)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  76.86
  
  
  Copyright
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