A student of Nicolas-Toussaint Charvet (1792-1845), best known for his ethnographic interests and Orientalist works, Théodore Valério retired to Brittany after having shown his works at the Paris Salon between 1838 and 1879. He had stayed there before, in Douarnenez, in 1843-1844. Other studies of Breton women at work were shown at the Galerie Gaubert in Paris (M.-M. Aubrun, Théodore Valério (1819-1879), exhib. cat., Paris, Galerie Pierre Gaubert, 1980, nos. 4, 6-10, ill.).