The Herdsman

17th or 18th century

A man with tanned skin is surrounded by animals as he reclines against a grassy slope in this horizontal landscape painting. The area close to us is darkened or in shadow, so some details are difficult to make out, but the land brightens under a golden sky as it recedes into the deep, hazy distance. In the lower left corner of the canvas, the man faces our right in profile, looking toward the grazing animals. He wears a wide-brimmed hat and a caramel-brown jacket over a knee-length garment. He leans back on his near arm with one leg bent and the other extended. His far hand lies across his torso and holds a short staff. A dark brown goat, tan-colored sheep, and brown and gray cows wander and nibble on muted green, scrubby growth that carpets the hilly ground, which stretches across the center and right side of the composition. Trees with laurel-green canopies grow up beyond the man, and extend off the top edge of the painting. A slender, almost leafless tree frames the scene on the right. Two men walk on a gently arched, stone bridge beyond the spindly tree. Low hills slope down to a misty blue-gray plain, where a river winds along a jagged bank dotted with trees. In the far distance, ghostly buildings stretch along a line of slate-blue mountains. A glowing sun in the upper left corner casts diffused light across the scene. The sky is scattered with wisps of thin clouds.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 120.7 x 160 cm (47 1/2 x 63 in.)
    framed: 161.3 x 200 cm (63 1/2 x 78 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1946.7.12

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Jean-Joseph-Pierre-Augustin Lapeyrière [1779-1831, known as Augustin Lapeyrière, then Augustin de Lapeyrière]; (his sale, Henry at Galerie Le Brun, Paris, 19 April 1825 and days following [originally scheduled for 14 March and days following], no. 72).[1] Chevalier Sébastien Érard [1752-1831], Château de la Muette, near the Bois de Boulogne, Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence by Lacoste and Coutelier, 7-14 August 1832 [originally scheduled for 23 April and days following], no. 183);[2] bought by Dougas. William Williams Hope [1802-1855], Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire, and Paris; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11 May 1858, no. 1); bought for Baron James de Rothschild [1792-1868]; his son, Baron Gustave Salomon de Rothschild [1829-1911]; his daughter Aline de Rothschild Sassoon [1865-1909]; her husband Sir Edward Sassoon [1856-1912]; their daughter, Sybil Sassoon [1894-1989, who married in 1913 George Horatio Charles, 5th marquess of Cholmondeley], Houghton Hall, Norfolk; sold 1939 to (Wildenstein & Co., Paris, New York, and London);[3] sold 1945 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1946 to NGA.
[1] Lapeyrière is identified on the title page of the sale catalogue as "receveur general des contributions du Département de la Seine." An annotation in the NGA Library's copy appears to give a buyer's name that is not entirely legible: "Const. . ."
[2] This sale was incorrectly published in the NGA systematic catalogue as being held in 1831, and originally scheduled only for April 23 (Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 22, 109).
[3] See Lady Sybil Cholmondeley, letters to John Walker, 11 October 1965 and 3 February 1969, in NGA curatorial files.
[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2190.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1860

  • Catalogue de tableaux et dessins de l'école française, principalement du XVIIIeme siècle, cités de collections d'amateurs, et exposés au profit de la caisse de secours des artisites, peintres, sculpteurs, architects et dessinateurs, Paris, 1860.

1925

  • Exposition du paysage français de Poussin à Corot, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1925, no. 121, as Scène champêtre.

1932

  • Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 161, repro., as Rural Scene.

1946

  • Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 784.

1974

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1974-1975.

1981

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Casper W. Weinberger, U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, D.C., 1981-1982.

Bibliography

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 8(1837):375, no. 402.

1832

  • Catalogue des tableaux italiens, flamands, hollandais et français : des anciennes écoles, qui composent la magnifique galerie de M. le Chevalier Érard. Paris, 1832.

1864

  • Lejeune, Théodore Michel. Guide théorique et practique de l'amatuer de tableaux: études sur les imitateurs et les copistes des maîtres des toutes les école, dont les oeuvres forment las base ordinaire des galeries. 3 vols. Paris, 1864-1865:I: 152.

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 155, repro.

1946

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. Supplement to the Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1946: 56, repro.

1952

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 117-118, repro. 120

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 114, color repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 65, pl. 142.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 343, repro.

1960

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 9, repro.

1961

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel. Claude Lorrain: The Paintings. 2 vols. New Haven, 1961 (reprint New York, 1979): 1:no. 280; 2: fig. 348.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 202, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 28.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:284, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 21, repro.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 67, color repro.

1969

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel. "Claude Lorrain in the National Gallery of Art." Studies in the History of Art (1969-1970):34-57, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 70, repro.

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel, and Doretta Cecchi. L'opera completa di Claude Lorrain. Milan, 1975: no. 30, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 285-286, fig. 255, as Landscape with Herdsman.

  • Röthlisberger, Marcel, and Doretta Cecchi. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Claude Lorrain. Paris, 1977: no. 28, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 90, repro.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 22, 109-113, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20176863

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