Study for l'Amour au Village

In 1883 Bastien-Lepage submitted what was to be his last major work at the Paris Salon - l'Amour au Village (Pushkin Museum, Moscow). The theme of a rustic tryst, he claimed, had been suggested by his contact with British painting on regular annual summer visits to London. Only two studies are known and one of these is an unlocated graphite drawing. The present oil study is therefore likely to be that included in the artist's posthumous exhibition at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in March 1885 (no. 165) and subsequently sold at the Vente Jules Bastien-Lepage, at l'Hôtel Drouot in May 1885 (lot 41). In the finished oil (181 x 199 cms) much additional detail is added and the washing line on the right of the present study, removed.

We would like to thank Professor Kenneth McConkey for authenticating this work and providing this catalogue note.