Springtime
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
16 x 11 1/2 in. (40.6 x 29.2 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Lillian S. Timken, 1959
Accession Number
60.71.10
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Springtime** by Charlesque captures the gentle charm of rural life in a small-scale oil on wood panel (16 x 11½ in.), evoking the freshness of the season through shepherd girls tending flocks of sheep. Jacque, a 19th-century French artist key figure in the Barbizon school specialized in pastoral scenes that celebrated the French countryside. His realistic style, influenced by Realism, emphasizes the harmony between humans and nature, rendering sheep with meticulous detail drawn from his years as a shepherd in his youth. Painted on wood—a favored medium for its smooth surface and portability...
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...