TROYON, Constant

Constant Troyon is best known for his large-scale paintings of animals inspired by the works of the two great 17th century animal painters, Albert Cuyp and Paulus Potter. Still early in his career, as Troyon developed from his initial training as a porcelain painter to pursue a more serious artistic path, he looked to another artistic source: the pastoral landscapes of the 18th-century. The present work is a rare example of Troyon’s Rococo-influenced landscapes.

Troyon’s technique aims at realism and the description of light effects: its apparent, fragmented brushwork foreshadows that of the Impressionists.

Animals became frequent elements in Troyon’s paintings after the late 1840s, when he discovered to his delight the Dutch animal painters, especially Paulus Potter. The haze of a summer morning hangs over this landscape and invests it with a lightness reminiscent of Corot; it anticipates Impressionism later in the century but, on such a large canvas, comes across more as a decorative effect.

This painting demonstrates the incredible portrayal that Troyon could achieve with the utmost efficiency of brushstroke and cool, silvery lighting. The grazing cow at the centre of the composition is painted with her full weight and volume in just a few strokes of brown and creamy white. Two more cattle stand behind a worn wooden fence at left in the shade of dense trees.

Troyon’s admiration for seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painters induced him to visit the Netherlands in 1847. He had chosen to specialise in painting animals. His The Ford is a masterpiece in the integration of animals in the landscape. That vein, pursued throughout his career, won him artistic fame and a huge commercial success.