Louis Emile Adan - The Shepherdess

Louis Emile ADAN (Paris, 1839 – Paris, 1937)
The Shepherdess
Oil on wood panel
26.5x27 cm (panel) / 34x34.5 cm (framed)
Label numbered “56” lower right, stamp of the studio sale “Sale L. Émile Adan” on the back
Provenance:
- Sale of the studio of L. Émile Adan, Drouot, June 9, 1937, no. 56: The Shepherdess
- Péron-Champin Sale, Barbizon School and 19th-Century French Painting, June 2, 1996, no. 29: Little Shepherdess
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Son of a painter, Louis Émile Adan studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the studios of François-Édouard Picot and Alexandre Cabanel. Admitted to the Salon from 1863, the year of the first Salon des Refusés, he exhibited there every year until his death in 1937 and had a very successful official career. A medallist at the Salons of 1875 and 1882, he won the gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889 before being decorated as a knight of the Legion of Honour in 1892. Specialising in genre scenes, his works depict the daily lives of his contemporaries, both urban and rural.
This young shepherdess with her goat is quite characteristic of his work. Quite freely executed, it was probably painted on location with an original low-angle viewpoint that suggests that the painter sat down in the grass to paint his study. It reflects Louis-Émile Adan's skill in transcribing the effects of light, which he places in small spots on the forehead and shoulder of his model, on the goat's coat and on a few tufts of grass. This pleasant little panel was part of the painter's studio at his death and bears the stamp of the sale of his estate at Drouot in June 1937.