Selected Poems of Jules Breton

Book excerpt: Vincent van Gogh loved both art and poetry. He especially loved the nineteenth-century Realist art and French poetry of Jules Adolphe Aime Louis Breton (1827-1906). Both Breton's art and poetry focused on the French countryside, peasant themes and, at times, his Christian faith. Van Gogh copied a number of Breton's poems and sent them in letters to his brother, Theo, and to Anthon van Rappard, an artist friend. He also promised to send Breton's complete book of poems, Les Champs et la mer /The Fields and the Sea ) to Theo. This book includes Breton's original poems Van Gogh copied with translations and commentary on each poem by the translator. Most of Breton's poems were dedicated to fellow artists or poets. These metrical translations reflect the rhyme and meter of the original French poems. Breton became well known in America for his 1884 oil on canvas, Le chant de l'alouette/The Song of the Lark (Henry Field Memorial Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago). It was exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair in 1934 where First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt stated it was her own favorite painting. This book's aim is to introduce Breton's poetry to the English-speaking world.