Sheep drinking.

In 1849 Charles-Emile Jacque (1813-94) fled Paris to escape from the cholera epidemic to the rural retreat of Barbizon in the company of his friend Jean-Francois Millet. The rest is art history. Although not so well known today, he was a central figure in the important ‘early modern’ Barbizon School of landscape painters for several decades. He was, moreover, a central figure in French 19th century printmaking and particularly etching. He ranks with Bracquemond, Buhot and Meryon as a central figure here. His Grove Art Online entry states that ‘more significant are his etchings; this medium was beginning to undergo a revival in popularity at the time… to a large extent through Jacque’s efforts. Working in etching and drypoint, he produced numerous small prints of rustic life, beggars, farm animals, cottages and landscapes.’ He was a major figure in the Rembrandt revival, and stylistically his handling of etching owes a lot to his predecessor. An important admirer was Charles Baudelaire: 'M. Jacques’s new reputation will continue to grow always, we hope. His etchings are very bold and his subject matter is well conceived. All that M. Jacque does on copper is filled with a freedom and a frankness which reminds one of the Old Masters’. The prints of Adriaen van Ostade, a central figure in 17th century Dutch rural genre painting, were a big influence (Jacque produced a series based on Ostade’s works). Although he looks back, he is also of his time – ‘you’ve got to belong to your times’ wrote his contemporary, Daumier.

The large majority of prints by Jacque are of sheep (and sometimes shepherds) in Barbizon meadows; they are more robustly realist than they are part of the pastoral idealism, established in the previous century by Watteau and Boucher. This etching is a good example; we see a flock of sheep drinking from the edge of a stream or pond. Immediately to the right is the shepherd, while the dog, standing in the water, alertly beholds the flock. The early 20th century art critic and historian Charles Moreau-Vauthier perfectly summed up a work such as this when he wrote:

'Here we find ourselves in the middle of the countryside -¦we recognise the sweeping horizons and trees dotted about against the sky. When we look closely at the sheep, we become aware of the artist's profound knowledge of the animal: the structure of its body, its appearance and its expression'. He also noted 'the watchfulness of the shepherd and the sheep' and the alert figure of the dog'.

See:

Musée d'Orsay, http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting.html?no_cache=1&zoom=1&tx_damzoom_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=121473

Wikipedia, 'Charles Jacque', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Jacque

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   May 2018