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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 Mexico temples, notably those of the Upper Temple of Jaguars at Chichen Itza.
Her time in Mexico was spent travelling on horseback across the country, using her artistic skills to record the friezes, carvings and other archaeological treasures that were being unearthed in the Yucatán. Her first trip lasted 18 months, when she travelled continually making notes and sketches.McVicker, Chapter 4, pp 19–20 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.McVicker, Chapter 6, pp 29–32 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.McVicker, Chapter 7, pp 33–36 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 Agave americana 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. McVicker, Adela Breton: A Victorian Artist Amid Mexico's Ruins, back page She was recognised internationally in her lifetime for her valuable contribution to Mesoamerican archaeology.
She died in Barbados on 13 June 1923 aged 73.
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.
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