Original Picture: Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois.
Artist: Jules Adolphe Breton (brẽ tôN´).
Birthplace: Courrières, France.
Dates: Born, 1827; died, 1906.
The story of the picture. It is said that the artist, Jules Breton, was walking in the fields of France early one morning when suddenly there burst forth the joyous song of a lark singing high in the air. As he looked about him, trying to discover the bird, he soon found it by following the rapt gaze of a peasant girl who had stopped to look and listen. As you know, an English lark sings while flying high in the air instead of in the treetops as other birds do. Its song, too, is longer and far more beautiful than that of our lark, and has been the subject of many poems. Perhaps the best known are “Hark, Hark, the Lark,” by Shakespeare, and “To a Skylark,” by Shelley.
The last line of this verse by Shelley is often quoted:
“Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,