A student at the Marseille School of Fine Arts, Théodore Jourdan completed his studies in the studio of Émile Loubon in Paris. He mainly paints sites in Provence and especially pastoral scenes where the representation of sheep of the local Merino d'Arles breed dominates. He made his debut at the Marseille Exhibition of 1859 with A Visit to Nazareth. He then exhibited at the Salon of French Artists from 1865. He received a gold medal at the 1879 Universal Exhibition in Sydney. He taught at the Marseille School of Fine Arts from 1874 to 1903. He bequeathed to his hometown, Salon-de-Provence, 19 large-format canvases as well as numerous drawings in exchange for a lifetime pension to be paid to his widow: these paintings are kept in a room which bears his name in the Salon and Crau museum. Works in public collections: Aix-en-Provence, Granet museum: A flock in Provence, 1880. Marseille: Marseille Academy: Portrait of Jean Roque. Museum of Fine Arts: The Passage of the Herd Return of a Herd to Provence Herd of Goats Portrait of a Bearded Man Tourcoing, MUba Eugène Leroy: Sheep at the Watering Trough, 1881 Salon-de-Provence, Musée de Salon et de la Crau: Liner unloading its sheep in Marseille; Shepherd and his sheep in the Crau of Arles; Herd in the Crau; La Chevrière and her donkey; Herd of sheep in the vanguard of the herd; Before dawn on the mountain; Shepherd and his flock under the mistral; Goats on the road to Cassis; The squash harvest in Provence; Leaving the sheepfold; Shepherdess and her flock in Lourmarin; Chevrière leading her flock; Shepherd and his flock under the storm; Shepherd in the pasture: La Sortie de Bergerie; Herd drinking from a stream in an undergrowth.