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Lot Essay
In 1845, the year in which he first exhibited at the Salon, Charles-Emile Jacque met Jean-Franois Millet and, when an outbreak of cholera drove them from Paris, both decided to move with their familes to Barbizon. There Jacque continued the artistic exploration of rural countryside that he had begun a few years earlier in Burgundy, where his family had settled. He shared a studio with his new neighbour Millet and the two of them would go out into the woods of Barbizon and paint together for hours.
During this time, while Millet painted landscapes, Jacque devoted himself to animal studies for which he found an enormous, and lucrative, market. Throwing himself headlong into the rural lifestyle, he began to breed hens and even wrote a book on domestic and exotic species. When this fad wore off, he sold all of his prize poultry and turned his attention, artistically at least, to sheep. At the Salon of 1861, the critic Alfred Nettement commented on Jacque's sheep: "Ces moutons sont de vrais moutons. Vous les avez rencontrs dans la plaine, tristes et sales, avec l'air tranquille et hbt...Nous sommes loin des bergeries de Florian" (quoted in G. Schurr and P. Cabanne, Dictionnaire des Petits Matres de la Peinture, 1820-1920, vol. II, Paris, 1996, p. 17).
During this time, while Millet painted landscapes, Jacque devoted himself to animal studies for which he found an enormous, and lucrative, market. Throwing himself headlong into the rural lifestyle, he began to breed hens and even wrote a book on domestic and exotic species. When this fad wore off, he sold all of his prize poultry and turned his attention, artistically at least, to sheep. At the Salon of 1861, the critic Alfred Nettement commented on Jacque's sheep: "Ces moutons sont de vrais moutons. Vous les avez rencontrs dans la plaine, tristes et sales, avec l'air tranquille et hbt...Nous sommes loin des bergeries de Florian" (quoted in G. Schurr and P. Cabanne, Dictionnaire des Petits Matres de la Peinture, 1820-1920, vol. II, Paris, 1996, p. 17).