A Bit of Detail

John Leslie Breck’s A Bit of Detail focuses closely on a patch of flowering plants nestled against and almost submerging a low gray stone. The small patch of ground, dominated by bright greens, fills the composition, suggesting the setting of a rough meadow or a naturalistic garden. The brilliant red, purple, yellow, and white of the varied blossoms and the lively, haphazard texture of their abundant foliage are captured in rapidly applied, rough strokes of paint thickly built up on the canvas surface. The absence of a horizon and the context it would provide further undermine the representational illusion of a patch of flowers, grass, and stone, hinting at the possibility of color and texture as artistic ends in themselves. Such a then-radical approach to subject matter was complemented by Breck’s working method: the spontaneity and freedom of the brushwork almost certainly indicate that the artist painted A Bit of Detail on site, directly in front of his subject, rather than in the studio from preparatory studies according to the academic methods in which he had been trained.

Previously known as Rock Garden at Giverny, Breck’s painting long was assumed to have been painted in Giverny, a rural village in Normandy, France, which became an international artist's colony beginning in the late 1880s. Working there intermittently between 1887 and 1891, Breck was closely associated with Claude Monet (1840–1926), adopting not only his mentor’s current subjects but the pure color, distinct brushstrokes, and on-site painting methods of impressionism, of which the French artist was an acknowledged leader. After he returned permanently to the United States in 1891, Breck began to paint the Massachusetts landscape. In addition to scenes around his family’s farmland in West Rutland, such as his Winter Landscape (TF 1999.17), he painted near the coast at Annisquam, on Cape Ann. On the basis of its resemblance to the foreground rocks and flowers in his panoramic painting Near Annisquam, Autumn (circa 1894, private collection), this work has been identified as the painting entitled A Bit of Detail that Breck exhibited in his 1895 solo show at the St. Botolph’s Club in Boston in 1895. Thus, the artist likely considered A Bit of Detail both a study for the larger landscape painting and a finished work. Returning to the floral theme of earlier garden paintings, it recalls his 1888 Yellow Fleurs-de-Lis (TF 1989.2) in its plant’s-eye view, in which the flowers not only dominate the image but define the sense of scale. A Bit of Detail exploits the rich texture and pure color of its natural subject to explore the full dimensions of the impressionist approach.

American Impressionist Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (organizer). Venues: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., July 1–August 26, 1973; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, September 18–November 2, 1973; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, December 15, 1973–January 31, 1974; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, March 8–April 29, 1974. [exh. cat.]

Selections from the Permanent Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, July 19–September 14, 1985.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987 (as Rock Garden at Giverny). [exh. cat.]

In Nature's Ways: American Landscape Painting of the Late Nineteenth Century, Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida (organizer). Venues: Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, February 21–April 12, 1987; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 10–November 1, 1987 (as Rock Garden at Giverny). [exh. cat.]

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Americans at Home and Abroad, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 6–29, 1987.

American Painters in France, 1830–1930, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 14–September 3, 1989. [exh. cat.]

Un regard américain sur Paris (An American Glance at Paris), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 11–October 31, 1997.

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.

Giverny en fleurs (Giverny in Bloom), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 2–November 30, 2003. John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist, Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina (organizer); Venues: Mint Museum Uptown: September 18, 2021 – January 2, 2022; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee: January 22 – March 27, 2022; Figge Museum of American Art, Davenport, Iowa: May 28 – August 28, 2022. [exh. cat.]

Domit, Moussa M. American Impressionist Painting. (exh. cat., National Gallery of Art). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1974. Ill. no. 8, p. 26 (color).

Pilgrim, Dianne. "The National Gallery's Impressionist Show." American Art Review (January/February 1974): 76–80, 126. Ill. p. 80 (color as Rock Garden).

Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984. Ill. no. 50, p. 64 (color as Rock Garden at Giverny).

The Magazine Antiques 127 (March 1985): 493. Ill. (color as Rock Garden at Giverny).

American Paintings III 1985. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1985. Ill. p. 83 (color as Rock Garden at Giverny).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Text p. 240; pl. T-131, p. 240 (color).

Weber, Bruce and William H. Gerdts. In Nature's Ways: American Landscape Painting of the Late Nineteenth Century. (exh. cat., Norton Gallery of Art). West Palm Beach, Florida: Norton Gallery of Art, 1987. Fig. 3, p. 74 (black & white).

Corbin, Kathryn. John Leslie Breck, American Impressionist. The Magazine Antiques 134 (November 1988). Text Pl. X (caption).

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. 51, 146–47; fig. 44, p. 51 (black & white).

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. 51, 146–47; fig. 44, p. 51 (black & white).

Peters, Lisa N. Visions of Home: American Impressionist Images of Suburban Leisure and Country Comfort. (exh. cat., Trout Gallery). Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1997. Fig. 34, p. 60 (black & white as A Bit of Detail: Rock Garden at Giverny).