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Article: Animal Painting in 19th-Century France

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Home›How to collect antique paintings›Animal Painting in 19th-Century France

Animal Painting in 19th-Century France

In 1855 a gold medal at the Paris World's Fair went to a team of oxen hauling hay.

The painter was Rosa Bonheur.

Two tigers at rest before a dark rock, the wild animal as a subject in its own right The wild The big cat became a Romantic emblem, studied from life at the Paris menagerie. Two Tigers, French School, 1800s
Oxen under the yoke and grazing sheep, livestock painted in the open field The herd Bonheur, Troyon and Jacque painted livestock from life, standing in the field. Oxen and Sheep, James Desvarreux-Larpenteur
A fox seizing a duck at the water's edge, the moment of the kill The hunt Hounds, game and the farmyard, descending from Snyders and Oudry. Fox Seizing a Duck, Ernest Brigot
A camel in wedding trappings under a plumed litter, the Orientalist current The journey Painters who went to North Africa came back with camels, horses and caravans. Portrait of a Wedding Camel, Alfred Couverchel

Nineteenth-century French animal painting ran in four currents side by side, the wild, the herd, the hunt and the journey south.

How to Read an Antique Animal Painting

Judge the animal like a face. If the eye is dead, nothing else in the picture will save it.

The camel's head under the wedding fringe, a point of white in the dark eye (Alfred Couverchel) 1 2 3 4

Portrait of a Wedding Camel, Alfred Couverchel, detail

1
The eyeOne point of white, and the head comes alive.
2
The lipsA single pale stroke where they part.
3
The halterCord and pendant, drawn in one thin line.
4
The fringeFast, loaded strokes, so the finish of the head stands out.

Sporting Art and the Hunt in French Painting

In sporting art the gear is part of the subject. Read it before the brushwork.

A huntsman in a scarlet coat holding back four hounds at the edge of an autumn wood, the hunting horn across his shoulder (Tristan Lacroix, 1891)

Huntsman and Four Hounds, Tristan Lacroix, 1891

The scarlet coat and velvet cap, the coiled hunting horn slung across the shoulder The horn The trompe de chasse, coiled wide enough to be worn across the body.
The pack pressing in around the huntsman's legs, each hound in black, white and tan The pack Four hounds in black, white and tan crowd his boots, both of his hands busy at their collars.

Buying an Antique Animal Painting

Read the label Circle of and follower of each make a precise claim about who held the brush. The guide to reading attribution, below, sets them out.
Turn it over Each listing here shows the back of the painting. The support and the stretcher often date a picture better than the style.

Animal paintings for sale

Camel in wedding trappings with a plumed litter in the desert, signed oil on canvas by Alfred Couverchel Alfred CouverchelWedding Camel, 1800s $12,000See the painting Antique French landscape with four large haystacks and a shepherd driving his flock, oil on canvas in a gilded frame Alexandre Gaston GuignardShepherd among Haystacks $3,600See the painting A girl in a blue skirt feeding a flock of turkeys in a shorn field at the edge of an oak wood, signed oil by Emile Michel dated 1872, in a carved gilt frame Émile MichelGirl with Turkeys, 1872 $6,700See the painting The unframed panel on a small easel on a marquetry desk in a panelled study, next to bound books and brass candlesticks Tristan LacroixHuntsman and Hounds, 1891 $2,900See the painting
For sale
Antique Animal Paintings Antique Animal Paintings10 paintingsBrowse the collection
Keep reading Related guideCollecting Antique Dog Portraits Related guideReading Attribution on an Antique Painting Every guide, by subject

Original works, shipped free to the US and Canada, packed and tracked|Over 1,100 paintings sold since 2017

Photographs and descriptions of the paintings in our collection by GalerieClub Fine Art.