Chemin de la cascade

Born in Paris in 1839, Emile Adan began his artistic training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris under the tutelage of Franois Edouard Picot and Alexandre Cabanel. Adan was a loyal participant of the annual Paris Salon, admitting works from 1863 until the year of his death in 1937. Besides painting landscapes, which proved especially suitable for reproduction, the artist also illustrated various books such as Les Fables of La Fontaine and Flaubert's Un coeur simple. As the present lot clearly illustrates, Adan bestowed his landscapes with anecdotal scenes. In Chemin de la cascade, a female figure, dressed in contemporary clothes, is adjusting her shoe after descending a steep forest path. With charming frankness, Adan has given the viewer an intimated glimpse of this quintessential feminine gesture.