The Potato Harvest 

Jules Breton created this painting on canvas with oil paints to depict the everyday life of rural workers. Look closely at the basket, sack, and tools, and you'll begin to understand how Breton imbued a great deal of social and cultural significance in his work. The woven basket shows knowledge of basketry, used for gathering and transporting the harvested potatoes. This skill is passed down through generations, a form of material culture inherent to the working class. The coarse sack represents a rough textile, likely made from plant fibers, which holds the potatoes as they are collected. The material reality of rural labor is tied to wider social issues of labor, politics, and consumption, all rooted in the production process and the lives of the workers themselves. Breton challenges our assumptions about fine art, emphasizing the importance of materials, making, and context in understanding the full meaning of an artwork.