Arts & Entertainment
'Fire in a Haystack' Celebrates Spirit of Community
Learn more about the artwork on display through September outside the Berkley Public Safety Building as part of the Detroit Institute of Arts' annual Inside|Out program.
A reproduction of "Fire in a Haystack" by Jules Adolphe Aime Louis Breton is on display through September outside the Berkley Public Safety Building.
It is one of five artworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts on display this summer throughout Berkley as part of the fourth annual Inside|Out program.
"It's a dramatic scene – smoke billows into the air while the haystack burns. But this community seems to have everything under control," the DIA says of "Fire in a Haystack," an oil on canvas painted in 1856. "No one panics; instead they work together to put out the fire. Too good to be true? Perhaps. The artist was known for his idealized vision of rural life. In this painting, everyone has a role."
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The French painter's mother died when he was 4 and he subsequently was raised by his father and other family members, who instilled in him a reverence for tradition, hard work and family life – themes that colored his work in defiance of trends at the time, according to Art Renewal Center.
[Read: Your Guide to DIA Inside|Out Exhibit in Huntington Woods]
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