Théodore Jourdan (1833-1908) Sheep At Rest

Pretty oil on cardboard by the animal specialist and the bucolic life of the Provençal School Théodore Jourdan. The framed work measures 21 cm by 30 cm and 14 cm by 24 cm without the frame, it is signed lower left and represents four sheep at rest under trees.
Student at the School of Fine Arts in Marseille, 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 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 Universal Exhibition of 1879 in Sydney. He taught at the École des beaux-arts de Marseille 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 canvases are kept in a room which bears his name in the Musée de Salon et de la Crau. Works in the public collections: Aix-en-Provence, Granet museum: A herd in Provence, 1880. Marseille: Academy of Marseille: Portrait of Jean Roque. Musée des Beaux-Arts: The Passage of the herd Return of a herd in Provence Herd of goats Portrait of a bearded man Tourcoing, MUba Eugène Leroy: Moutons à l '(drinking trough, 1881 Salon-de-Provence, museum of Salon and la Crau: Liner unloading its sheep in Marseille; Shepherd and his sheep in Crau d'Arles; Herd in Crau; La Chevrière and his donkey; Herd of sheep in front of the herd; Before dawn on the mountain; Shepherd and his flock under the mistral; Goats on the road to Cassis; The harvest of squash in Provence; The exit from the sheepfold; Shepherdess and his flock in Lourmarin; Goat leading his flock; Shepherd and his flock under the storm; Shepherd in the pasture: La sortie de Bergerie; Herd drinking from a stream in the undergrowth.