NARRATOR:
These two paintings by the 18th-century French painter Deshays de Colleville are typical of the light-hearted, pastoral themes popular during the Rococo era. Their heightened artifice and soft colors held great appeal for the French aristocracy, who found such fanciful scenes a welcome relief from the rigorous demands of court etiquette.
Ruins abound in these mysterious landscapes, one populated by sleepy shepherds, the other by rustic washerwomen. Deshays and his contemporaries admired the sentiments they imagined in such characters. They saw country folk as natural and innocent, with gentle emotions and placid expressions.
French 18th- century paintings are famous for their smooth, velvety brushwork and pastel colors. Deshays, however, brings a rich tactile quality to his work. Born near Rouen in northern France, he was a student (and later son-in-law) of François Boucher, one of the great masters of the period. In 1751, Deshays won the prestigious Prix de Rome and went to Italy, where he absorbed the lesson of southern Baroque painting evident in the free brushwork of these carefully posed, theatrical compositions.
Rest of the Shepherds
18th century
Jean-Baptiste Deshays de Colleville (French, 1729-1765)
On View
Rest of the Shepherds follow the type of pastoral cabinet pictures that were quite popular during the Rococo period. They allowed for the playful combination of rural views, ruins and imaginative or exotic clothing worn by the participants. Thematic interest took second place to the aesthetic concerns for a painterly, colorful surface and the mood or sensibility of the subject.
Deshays, a native of Rouen, was the first prize winner of the Prix de Rome in 1751. During his four years in Rome he absorbed the lessons of the Bolognese masters Domenichino and Guercino. Later he was deeply influenced by Francois Boucher whose daughter Jean-Elisabeth he married in 1758. He enjoyed a growing reputation as a painter of religious subjects so much so that, following the Salon of 1761, in which his Scourging of St. Andrew was exhibited, he was hailed by Diderot as the most important painter in France.
Details
- Artist Name: Jean-Baptiste Deshays de Colleville (French, 1729-1765)
- Title: Rest of the Shepherds
- Date: 18th century
- Medium: Oil on canvas, oval (one of a pair)
- Dimensions: 19-1/2 x 16-3/8 in. (49.5 x 41.6 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: F.1983.07.1.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Mme. Cécile Sorel (sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 6-7 December 1928, lot 8, ill., as Le Repos des Bergers, to);
Stettiner.
(sale, Paris, Pavillon Gabriel, 17 June 1977, lot 15, ill., as Le repos des bergers, to);
[Jean Cailleux, Paris, buying for];
Norton Simon, Los Angeles, gift 1983 to;
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Stettiner.
(sale, Paris, Pavillon Gabriel, 17 June 1977, lot 15, ill., as Le repos des bergers, to);
[Jean Cailleux, Paris, buying for];
Norton Simon, Los Angeles, gift 1983 to;
The Norton Simon Foundation.
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