A Shepherd and a Rider on a Country Lane

Auguste-Xavier Leprince

ca. 1823 · Oil on paper, laid down on canvas · European Paintings

In the 1820s, the countryside of France began to rival Italy for the attention of its painters, who drew from a tradition with strong roots in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch and Flemish art. This scene may be an early depiction of the Forest of Fontainebleau. While the landscape retains all the freshness of a plein-air study, the figures are stock characters from Leprince’s repertory.

Artist

Auguste-Xavier Leprince

Date

ca. 1823

Medium

Oil on paper, laid down on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

The Whitney Collection, Promised Gift of Wheelock Whitney III, and Purchase, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. McVeigh, by exchange, 2003