Article: Pastoral Scenes, Shepherds and Sheep in 19th-Century French Painting

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Pastoral Scenes, Shepherds and Sheep in 19th-Century French Painting

At the Salon of 1857, three women gleaning a field were read as a political picture.

Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners.

A shepherd and his dog driving the flock past four haystacks under a grey sky

The shepherd One man, one black dog, and the flock pressed between them. Shepherd among Haystacks, Gaston Guignard

Two oxen under the yoke drawing a cart across flowering heather

The team Two oxen under the yoke, drawing a cart across the heather. Oxen and Sheep in a Clearing, James Desvarreux-Larpenteur

A girl in a blue skirt feeding turkeys in a shorn field at the edge of an oak wood

The girl A girl feeding her turkeys in a shorn field at the edge of the wood. Girl with Turkeys, Emile Michel, 1872

A thatched farm with hens under a tree in blossom

The farmyard A thatched farm and its hens, under a tree in blossom. Blossoming Tree and Farmyard, Paul Emmanuel Péraire

A pastoral painting is the nineteenth-century French landscape in which working figures and their animals are inseparable from the land.

Why the Pastoral Turned Serious in the Nineteenth Century

The figures are not portraits, the animals are not pets, and the land is not ornament.

The eighteenth century	The nineteenth century
GIVEN TO
Porcelain shepherdesses, playful Boucher, decorative Fragonard	Millet, Jacque, Bonheur, Breton
THE FIGURES
Arcadian youths in white tunics	French peasants in patched clothes and wooden clogs
THE SHEEP
Ornament, with ribbons on the crooks	Particular breeds and fleece, at a specific hour of a specific season
PAINTED FOR
People who had never stood in a field	The countryside the figures actually worked

How to Recognize a Pastoral Landscape Painting

Find the smallest figure in the picture. Then look at what he is wearing.

Shepherd, flock and four haystacks under a grey sky, the shepherd boxed at the center of the canvas (Gaston Guignard)

Shepherd among Haystacks, Gaston Guignard. Oil on canvas, 12½ x 16 inches.

The shepherd enlarged, straw hat, blue smock and staff, between two sheep with thick cream fleece

123 The boxed area, enlarged.

1

The clothesUnder two inches tall on the canvas (about 4 cm), and still a straw hat and a blue smock.

2

The staffWork, not leisure. A staff, a sickle, a plow, never a crook with a ribbon.

3

The fleeceLaid in thick strokes of cream. The animals get the same care as the man.

The Painters of French Pastoral Painting

Four dates when the flock and the field took center stage.

1849

Millet and Charles JacqueLeave Paris and its cholera for Barbizon together. Millet paints the people of the fields, Jacque the flock.

Rosa Bonheur1822-1899Ploughing in the Nivernais at the Salon. Twelve oxen in two teams, turning a field in autumn sun.

1850s

Constant Troyon1810-1865Cattle and sheep given the wall space of a figure painting.

1863

Jean-François Millet1814-1875Shepherdess with her Flock. Red cape, head bowed, knitting, a vast sky.

1884

Jules Breton1827-1906The Song of the Lark. A barefoot girl at dawn, a sickle at her side.

Buying a Pastoral Landscape Painting

Date the canvas, not the subject The shepherd and his flock were painted the same way well into the 1900s. The subject will not date the picture. The support, the stretcher and any stamp on the back will.

Then the eye, not the name Many able painters worked in this manner and remain little cataloged. A well-observed flock by an unknown hand is still a well-observed flock, and an unsigned canvas is no fault.

Works citedRosa Bonheur, Ploughing in the Nivernais, 1849. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Jean-François Millet, Shepherdess with her Flock, about 1863. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Jules Breton, The Song of the Lark, 1884. Art Institute of Chicago

Shepherds, flocks and herds for sale

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

Two oxen under the yoke drawing a cart across flowering heather with sheep grazing, signed Desvarreux oil on canvas in a carved gilt frame

James Desvarreux-LarpenteurOxen and Sheep in a Clearing $3,700See 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

Full view of the framed canvas, blossoming tree and thatched farm with hens, in its carved gilt swept frame

Paul Emmanuel PeraireBlossoming Tree and Farmyard $3,700See the painting

For sale

Antique Landscape Paintings18 paintingsBrowse the collection

Keep reading More in The Landscape TraditionFrench Impressionist Landscape Painting Beyond the Famous Names Related guideThe Barbizon School in Painting Related guideAnimal Painting in 19th-Century France Every guide, by subject

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