Adela Breton

Adela Catherine Breton (31 December 1849 – 13 June 1923) was an English archaeological artist and explorer. She made watercolour copies of the wall paintings of Mexican temples, notably those of the Upper Temple of Jaguars at Chichen Itza.

Biography Breton was born in London on 31 December 1849, to parents who were widely travelled. Her English father served in the Royal Navy and met Adela's mother (who was born in Somerset, England) while in Tasmania. They moved to Bath, Somerset, a few months after Adela's birth and she grew up there. With much of her time spent in Bath, with its Roman remains, the Bretons took a keen interest in the archaeology. She initially headed for Canada (and the United States) where she painted the landscape, before returning to Bath to hold an exhibition of her paintings. In 1892 she made her first visit to Mexico. She hired a local guide, Pablo Solario. As the 1890s passed, Breton spent less time on return visits to England and more time on her travels in Mexico. Her observations became more scientific and broadened to include the geology, the canyons and volcanoes. However, she is particularly known for her colour paintings of the frescos discovered at Teotihuacan in 1894, at a site that became known as Teopancaxco. In 1908, she spent four months in Mexico studying the Maguey Plan (a pre-Columbian map of a part of the ancient City of Mexico believed to be done on maguey paper) at the National Museum of Anthropology in order to create a facsimile at the request of British archaeologist Alfred Maudslay.

Breton's travels in Mexico were eventually curtailed by the Mexican Revolution in 1910. She was recognised internationally in her lifetime for her valuable contribution to Mesoamerican archaeology.

Some of her correspondence with Ella Lewis of Philadelphia is held in Harvard University Library.

In 2016 a four-month exhibition entitled "The Remarkable Miss Breton" was held at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution in Bath. In 2017 an exhibition of her original work was held at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.