Love Tokens

Love Tokens, was created early in Breton's career. A painting with a similar scene (titled Young Children Examining Ears of Wheat) was exhibited at the 1855 Salon. It was then purchased by the Empress Éugenie and placed in her opulent residence at Saint Cloud, which burned in 1870. This painting is most likely a later re-creation of the lost work or simply a second version of the scene. Featuring the solid figural grouping he had learned to compose in the academies, the painting expressed the mythical innocence and purity that would become a mainstay of Breton's rural subjects.