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After the early death of his mother, Jules Breton and his three siblings were mainly raised by their father, who worked as a supervisor of the lands of the duke of Duras. The Belgian painter Félix de Vigne (1806-1862) convinced the young man to study with him, and Breton moved to Gent in 1843 where he attended the Royal Academy. In 1846 he was in Antwerp working briefly at the academy and spending much of his time studying the Flemish masters. Poor health in 1847 forced him to return to Courrières, but later that year he left for Paris to study with Michel-Martin Drolling (1786-1851), a pupil of David (q.v.). While living in Paris, Breton befriended artists such as Bonvin (q.v.) and Henner (q.v.). During the February Revolution of 1848, which ended the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, Breton sided with the liberal republicans. His father's untimely death that same year left him and his family in Courrières almost destitute. At the 1849 Salon he exhibited Misery and Despair (destroyed), followed by Hunger (destroyed) at the Salon of 1850-51. These paintings reveal his preoccupation with his own financial struggle and social injustice in general. Breton then began painting subjects related to peasant life, which resulted in one of his first large works, The Return of the Reapers (Salon 1853, Belgium, private collection). He then returned to Courrières and continued to create images of rural life, for example, the act of gleaning the remains of the wheat harvest. This task, reserved for the poor, women, and small children, became a favorite theme for Breton in the 1850s. In 1853 he became engaged to Elodie De Vigne, whom he married in 1858 and who often served as his model. She posed for The Gleaners (Salon 1855, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland), for example, which won him his first official recognition, a third-class medal, and moreover, drew attention from other artists including Millet (q.v.). In 1861 Breton received the Legion of Honor reflecting his official recognition. In the 1860s he also began traveling to Brittany. His fame increased after exhibiting ten paintings at the 1867 Universal Exposition in Paris, for which he received a first-class medal. His later works romanticize peasantry and the timeless traditions that, with advances in technology, were in jeopardy in the late nineteenth century. Because of the great demand for his works, both in France and abroad (especially the United States), Breton repeated motifs from earlier paintings, and thus, in his late career produced fewer imaginative works. His compositions became also widely available through engraved reproductions. Besides being a painter, Breton published extensively, including a collection of poems called Les champs et la mer (1875) and other works such as La vie d'un artiste: Art et nature (1890) and Nos peintres du siècle (1899).