First Riding Lesson
1864
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 14 in. × 13 1/2 in. (35.5 × 34.3 cm) Plate: 6 5/16 × 7 7/8 in. (16 × 20 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1927
Accession Number
27.10.30
Tags
Art Historical Context
Charles Jacque’s *First Riding Lesson* (1864) captures a lighthearted moment of rural life, showing children playfully interacting with sheep in a pastoral setting. A leading figure of the Barbizon School, Jacque specialized in intimate scenes of farm animals and peasant existence, rejecting idealized academic subjects in favor of honest depictions drawn from direct observation in the French countryside. Created as an etching—a medium prized in the nineteenth century for its ability to convey fine textures and spontaneous detail—the print reflects Jacque’s mastery of the technique. The modest...
About the Artist
Charles Jacque
Charles-Émile Jacque (1813–1894) was a pioneering French painter, engraver, and illustrator whose career bridged the worlds of printmaking and pastoral painting. Born in Paris amid a difficult childhood, he apprenticed at age seventeen to a map engraver, mastering drypoint technique and producing his first etching in 1830—a copy of a head after Rembrandt. After serving seven years in the French Ar...