Henry D. Knox, East Aurora, New York
Lt. James H. Knox, New York (by descent from the above, his father, and sold, Parke-Bernet, New York, February 28 and March 1, 1945, lot 184, illustrated)
Private Collection, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Thence by descent (and sold, Sotheby's, New York, April 25, 2006, lot 4, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Howard Young Galleries, American & Foreign Masters, New York, June 1925

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has been recently restored. The canvas is lined with a synthetic adhesive. The painting is cleaned. There are no retouches visible under ultraviolet light, except possibly to a few vertical cracks in the upper center of the sky and one vertical crack towards the right edge also in the sky. This painting can be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

In the late 1880s until the end of his career, Breton turned to a sequence of works which focused on landscape and light, particularly the unique atmospheric differences of Artois. In order to accurately capture the shifting shadows, sun rays, and clouds the artist undertook a series of studies at various times of day and weather conditions, which allowed him to seamlessly connect fields, roadways and rivers to the peasants who worked and lived there.  The present work, according to Annette Bourrut Lacouture, is one such compositional study made in preparation for Harvesting the Oil Poppies exhibited in the Salon of 1897 (now lost, see: Annette Bourrut Lacouture, Jules Breton, Painter of Peasant Life, New Haven, 2002, pp. 214-5).  The study is painted freely with an Impressionistic lightness of touch and complimentary color palette that evokes the sun warmed poppy fields.  Here, Breton places an emphasis on field and sky; the shifting washes and gauzy blue tones of the upper register in contrast to the dashes of rusty reds, bursts of gold and soft whites of the poppies ready for cutting.  Rather than clearly drafted lines, the harvesters’ forms are built of fluid blocks of color that match nearly tone for tone the fields in which they work.  In essence the peasants are painted with the same technique as the landscape, linking the two artistically as well as thematically.  As such, this work easily stands alone as an expression of the inherent quality of an artist who so sensitively understood the painting of a land and its people – and was so pleased with this preparatory work that he both signed and dated it.