Maurice (XIXth c.) ◊ The hen house 1 ◊ Oil painting on canvas

Description

Barnyard painting was born in the 19th century, in the wake of the school of Barbizon, also called Ecole de la Nature. Philibert Léon Couturier (1823-1901) devoted himself to peasant life in the tradition of Jean-François Millet (the famous gleaners in the setting sun) and of course, Corot. Animal paintings well observed, intimate and idyllic. Nicknamed the “king of the hen houses” by his friend Théophile Gautier, he established the aesthetics of the genre. In the stable, on the ground, a ray of sunlight illuminates the chickens, like stars. Free, they peck the grains left in the litter by the cows, far from industrial farms breeding in battery of today…