French School Around 1840 - The Sawmill - Sketch

French school circa 1840
Sketch – The sawmill
Oil on canvas
H. 24.5 cm; W. 32 cm
Bears a signature “Vernet” at the bottom left

When we see these sawyers, the first thought goes to a similar subject done by Jean-François Millet. The men, struggling with great physical tension on this already started log. We can also think of Sisley and his long sawyers at the edge of a sunny road, where the log is here only a… log, circular, in the composition.

Our canvas, much older, is certainly a sketch. Whether it was developed in a larger format later, no one knows. The outfits, hat, berets could guide by allowing the work to be located, but such a number of logs piled up in front of huts clearly indicates a large production site. The men, after having cut this tortuous log of an oak, beech or chestnut tree in two, remove the bark with their axes. This work of an open-air artist, briskly brushed, is to be placed around brushes such as Jules Coignet, André Giroux, Jacques-Raymond Brascassat, etc.