A respect for tradition, a love of the land and for his native region remained central to his art throughout his life and provided the artist with many scenes for his Salon compositions.

He met the painter Félix De Vigne in 1842 who, impressed by his youthful talent, persuaded his family to let him study art.

In 1846, Breton moved to Antwerp where he took lessons with Egide Charles Gustave Wappers and spent some time copying the works of Flemish masters.

He met and became friends with several of the Realist painters, including François Bonvin and Gustave Brion and his early entries at the Paris Salon reflected their influence.

His first efforts were in historical subjects: Saint Piat preaching in Gaul then, under the influence of the revolution of 1848, he represented Misery and Despair.

After Hunger was successfully shown in Brussels and Ghent, Breton moved to Belgium where he met his future wife Elodie.

[1] In 1853 he exhibited Return of the Reapers, the first of numerous rural peasant scenes influenced by the works of the Swiss painter Louis Léopold Robert.

His poetic renderings of single peasant female figures in a landscape, posed against the setting sun, remained very popular, especially in the United States.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition 1911, Breton was essentially a painter of rustic life, especially in the province of Artois, which he quit only three times for short excursions: in 1864 to Provence, and in 1865 and 1873 to Brittany, whence he derived some of his happiest studies of religious scenes.

Among his more important works, with their location as of 1911, may be named Women Gleaning, and The Day after St Sebastian's Day (1855), which gained him a third-class medal; Blessing the Fields (1857), a second-class medal; Erecting a Calvary (1859), now in the Lille gallery; The Return of the Gleaners (1859), now in the Luxembourg; Evening and Women Weeding (1861), a first-class medal; Grandfather's Birthday (1862); The Close of Day (1865); Harvest (1867); Potato Gatherers (1868); The Weeders (1868); A Pardon, Brittany (1869); The Fountain (1872), medal of honour; The Bonfires of St John (1875); Women mending Nets (1876), in the Douai museum; A Gleaner (1877), Luxembourg; Evening, Finistère (1881); The Song of the Lark (1884); The Last Sunbeam (1885); The Shepherd's Star (1887); The Call Home (1889); The Last Gleanings (1895); Gathering Poppies (1897); The Alarm Cry (1899); Twilight Glory (1900).

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt unveiled The Song of the Lark as the winner of the Chicago Daily News contest to find the "most beloved work of art in America".

[13] No great collectors flocked to purchase van Gogh's works during his lifetime, he received no commissions to paint from New York City, no prints were made while he lived, and he died in poverty.

[15] Ironically, in a letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh mentions he viewed Breton's painting The Song of the Lark and considered it to be "fine".

Works by Breton are still popular today and are being reproduced in giclée framed and unframed as well as everything from shopping bags to pillows and bed covers[21] as well as tee-shirts and coffee mugs.

In February 2014, actor Bill Murray disclosed at a press event for the film The Monuments Men, that a chance encounter with Breton's The Song of the Lark at the Art Institute of Chicago helped him at a low point in his early career.