The Broken Jug Important Oil Signed Gustave Jundt

The Broken Jug oil on canvas by Gustave Jundt (1830-1884) French painter born in Strasbourg. Great Work full of charm, which, in a rural atmosphere, allows the artist to highlight his interpretation of the theme of the broken jug. Nothing has happened to the young girl yet, the jugs she is carrying are in good condition, but the scene she discovers is perhaps premonitory. The little boy whose innocence, which here seems lost by his clumsiness, is rendered by the candidness of this pretty head with blond curls, the landscaped background integrates the very particular technique that Jundt uses for the realization of the fields of flowers, it is necessary note the particular care given to the representation of the fountain, which passes from the status of a simple everyday tool to that of an architectural element. Oil on canvas signed in red lower right. Beautiful period frame in wood and gilded stucco. The theme of the broken jug: La Fontaine, Aesop, and many others wrote fables about the pot or the jug. One of the old sayings reminds us "As long as the jug goes to the water that in the end it breaks". The image of the jug is common in many tales, especially those of the Middle Ages, and presents two analyses: that of the broken jug, which represents the loss of virginity, and that of the jug as the container of a liquid precious to life (water, milk) and which must be brought back after many efforts (fountain, milking) and which must be protected. The famous painting painted by Jean-Baptiste Greuze around 1771, Musée du Louvre collection on the theme of the broken jug, was perhaps the starting point, but Jundt was also able to draw inspiration from Herbert von Kleist's play "Der zerbrochene Krug" published in German in 1806. JUNDT Gustave 1830-1884 Born in Strasbourg, grandson of the Strasbourg silversmith Jacques Fréderic Kirstein, trained in the workshop of Gabriel Guérin in Strasbourg then at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and at Rolling. Travels to Tyrol, Baden, Austria, England, participates in the Salon of French Artists in Paris, predilection for Alsatian subjects, also caricaturist illustrator and creator of children's books. Legion of Honor in 1880. His works are kept in Colmar Unterlinden Museum, Mulhouse Museum of Fine Arts, Abbeville, Dunkirk, Rouen, Strasbourg Museum of Fine Arts.