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Jules Breton
1827-1906
A Breton Peasant Woman with a Fishing Net, Standing by the Sea
ca. 1865-1875
Black chalk on blue-gray laid paper
24 x 18 inches (610 x 457 mm)
Gift of Karen B. Cohen.
2022.320
Notes:
Watermark: Michellet.
Bretonʼs art, with its focus on women laborers, reflects his origins in the rural town of Courrières in northern France. On later visits to Douarnenez, a fishing community in Brittany, Breton was struck by the monumentality not only of its landscape but of its people. He drew and painted portraits of villagers -- such as this fisherwoman paused in her work -- whom he considered Michelangelesque figures in modern dress.
Provenance:
Possibly Breton's estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris June 2-3, 1911, lot 270, as "La Pecheuse, Dessin"; Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich, and Colnaghi, London, 1982; Shepherd Gallery, New York; from whom purchased by Karen B. Cohen, 1983.
Associated names:
Cohen, Karen B., former owner.
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