Signed lower left: C. Troyon
Provenance:
Brame, Paris, - 1883
Boussod, Valadon & Cie., Paris, 1883, no. 16603 (purchased from the above)
M. Post, La Haye, France, 1883-1888
Boussod, Valadon & Cie., Paris, 1888, no. 19337
Governor Oliver Ames, Boston, purchased from the above, 1888
Mrs. Lathrop Brown, New York
Sale, American Art Galleries, NY, 23-24 Jan 1924, lot 162 (from the estate of the above)
J.H. Wainright
James H. Clark
John Levy Galleries, New York
Findlay Galleries, Chicago
Morrie A. Moss, Memphis, Tennessee (until 1953)
Christian Brothers University, Memphis TN
Rounding up the Sheep confirms Troyon's status as one of the greatest animal painters of the 19th century. Not only has he expertly captured the thick wiry wool of the sheep and course black coat of the herding dog, but he also has conveyed the movement and energy of the subject, which he most likely observed first-hand in the French countryside.
The first American owner of Rounding up the Sheep was Governor Oliver Ames of Boston. The Ames family, together with other wealthy Bostonians, assembled one of the finest private collections of Barbizon paintings in the late 19th century. The painting then was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Lathrop Brown of New York, where it hung among works by Corot and the Barbizon School and American works by Demuth and Inness at their Long Island estate, known as the “Land of Clover” which is now a U. S. historic site. After passing through some significant collections in the early decades of the 20th century, the painting ended up in the collection of Morrie Moss in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Moss, a well-known philanthropist, gave the work to Christian Brothers University in 1953.
Constant Troyon was born August 28, 1810 in Sevres, where both of his parents were employed in The Sevres Porcelain Factory. He was trained by Riocreux, who was in charge of the porcelain museum at the Factory, and worked as a painter on porcelain. He drew and painted from nature in his spare time. In about 1824 he met Diaz, who became a closed friend. He made his debut at the Salon with three conventional landscapes and continued to work as a porcelain decorator. He painted in Sologne, in Brittany and with Jules Dupré in 1843, in the Landes. In the same year he met Rousseau and went to work in Barbizon, where he received his true introduction to landscape painting. Troyon exhibited views of the Forest of Fontainebleau at the Salons of 1844, 1846,and 1848. The decisive moment of his career came in 1847 during a visit to Holland, when he saw the work of Cuyp and Potter for the first time. He began to introduce domestic animals into his own pictures and became as a result a famous animal painter. He continued to paint landscapes, working mainly in Normandy, and the area of Tours, also visiting England and Tours and returning occasionally to the Barbizon region. In 1859 he advised the young Monet to work out of doors. He gained an international reputation via many exhibitions of his work, which were held in collections abroad, and he was swamped with commissions. In his last years he painted seascapes on the Normandy coast; it was during this period that Boudin worked for him. Constant Troyon died March 20, 1865 in Paris at the age of fifty-five.
Reprinted from The Barbizon School and 19th Century French Landscape Painting.
Selected Museum Collections:
Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Musée du Louvre; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frick Collection, Brooklyn Museum; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums; Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pittsburgh, Carngie Museum of Art; Fine Arts Muesums of San Francisco; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; Taiwan, Chi-Mei Museum;Washington DC, National Gallery of Art; Williamstown, MA, Clark Art Museum
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