Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon)

In an expansive meadow bordering a rustic village, a shepherd grazes his flock under a peaceful twilight sky in John Leslie Breck’s Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon). The emphatically horizontal composition, with its relatively high horizon, is dominated by the sweep of stubbly ground, in which the gathered flock is set at some distance from the viewer. Seen from the back, the cloaked and hatted shepherd, leaning on his crook, appears to be gazing at the moon, a narrow crescent sliver hanging just above the gentle rise of hills in the distance, where the land varies from the velvety surfaces of cultivated fields to chalky outcroppings partly clothed by the dark foliage of trees. The rich but muted colors of these elements and the clustered farmhouses and outbuildings on the right emphasize the contrast of darkening land and lingering daylight in the untroubled sky.

Breck painted this work in the rural village of Giverny, located about ninety kilometers from Paris. In 1887, he was one of a group of young American art students in the French capital who were among the first of many to live and work in Giverny, attracted by its inexpensive accommodations, the subjects it offered for landscape painting, and the presence of French painter Claude Monet (1840–1926). Under Monet’s influence, Breck adopted the techniques of impressionism: painting informal subjects rapidly and on-site (rather than in the studio) in divided brushstrokes of pure color to capture the effects of bright natural light. Like other members of the first generation of American impressionist painters, however, his production ranged from truly impressionist works to moodier, less spontaneous, more highly finished paintings. Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon), a large canvas intended for exhibition, incorporates both approaches. The lively brushwork of the foreground, characterized by short, choppy strokes of distinct contrasting color laid side-by-side, graduates to more smoothly blended effects in the distance. Rather than the bright, unmixed colors he used in his Garden at Giverny (In Monet’s Garden) (TF 1988.22), this work relies on harmonious hues and shadowy gradations of tone to evoke a calmly elegiac mood with spiritual overtones. Breck’s title lends his painting geographic specificity, but the shepherd and flock evoke more universal, religious associations, which, along with the work’s restrained technique, clearly were intended to appeal to the relatively conservative taste of mainstream exhibition viewers and jury members. In 1888, Breck included Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon) in major exhibitions in Paris and Munich, and in 1889 it won an honorable mention at the important art display at the Exposition Universelle, the world’s fair held in Paris.

As a somewhat romanticized image of French rustic life, Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon) manifests the widespread appeal of such subjects for American artists and their patrons in the second half of the nineteenth century. The theme of the shepherd recalls French painter Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), whose often-reproduced images of rural peasants, infused with religious sentiment, were beloved by Americans. Many American artists interpreted similar subjects while working in Europe, using a variety of styles. About the time Breck painted Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon) in Giverny, his compatriot Charles Sprague Pearce, working at another rural village in France, completed his Evening (Auvers-sur-Oise) (TF 1994.15), an interpretation of virtually the same subject. Coincidently, Pearce’s work, like Breck’s Autumn, Giverny (The New Moon), was exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Paris Salon, 1888. no. 364 (as Automne (Giverny))

Universal Exhibition, Paris, France, 1889, no. 26 (as Autumn)

Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (organizer). Venues: The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, September 29–December 17, 1989; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 1–April 15, 1990; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee, May 6–July 15, 1990; The New York Historical Society, New York, New York, September 5–November 15, 1990. [exh. cat.]

Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 1–November 1, 1992; April 1–October 31, 1993; April 1-October 30, 1994; April 1–October 31, 1995. [exh. cat.]

Giverny: une impression américaine (Giverny, An American Impression), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 1, 1998.

Giverny au fil des saisons (Giverny in All Seasons), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001.

D'une colonie à une collection: le Musée d'Art Américain Giverny fête ses dix ans (From a Colony to a Collection: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 30–June 16, 2002 (on exhibit partial extended run: September 13–November 30, 2002).

American Classics from the Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 14–June 15, 2003.

En plein air: personnages dans un paysage (En Plein Air: Figures in a Landscape), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004.

Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915, Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 1, 2007; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, July 21–October 14, 2007. [exh. cat.]

Impressionist Giverny: The Americans, 1885-1915, Selections from the Terra Foundation for American Art, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Florence Griswold Museum of Art, Old Lyme, Connecticut, May 3–July 27, 2008; Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York, August 23, 2008–January 4, 2009.

Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan with the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu, Japan, October 9–November 28, 2010; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, December 7, 2010–February 17, 2011; The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan, February 25–April 10, 2011. [exh. cat.]

The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context (L’atelier de la Nature, 1860-1910. Invitation à la Terra Collection). Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny (organizers). Venue: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, France, September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021. [exh. cat. in French]

Blaugrund, Annette. Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition. (exh. cat., Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in association with H. N. Abrams, 1989. Ill. no. 26, p. 270 (black & white).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 146–47; pl. 15, p. 151 (color).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 146–47; pl. 15, p. 151 (color).

Gerdts, William H. Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993. Text p. 57; pl. 49, p. 58 (black & white).

Gomes, Rosalie. Impressions of Giverny: A Painter's Paradise 1883–1914. San Francisco, California: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995. Text pp. 31, 112; pl. 17, p. 32 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. et al. Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915. (exh. cat. Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text pp. 33, 102, 204 (checklist); cat. p. 112 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M., Shunsuke Kijima and Sanjiro Minamikawa. Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism. (exh. cat. Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, and The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art). Fukuoka, Japan: The Nishinippon Shimbun, 2010. Text cat. no. 50, pp. 99 (in Japanese), 185 (in English); ill. pp. 98–9 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine and Valerie Reis. The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context. (exh. cat, Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny). Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2020.  Pl. 60, p. 134 (color).