Henry Bonnefoy (1839-1917) Farmyard In Boulogne Boulogne

Henry BONNEFOY
(Boulogne sur Mer 1839 - Lyon 1917)
Farmyard in Boulogne
Oil on canvas
H. 98 cm ; L. 146 cm
Signed lower right

Coming from a Boulogne family, Henry Bonnefoy grew up in the heart of a school in the city, where his father and his uncles were directors and teachers of music and fencing. An artist in his early years, he sold one of his first works to Sir Richard Wallace, a great art collector, in 1854. Local landscapes were his main subjects, which he presented in Paris at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1857. The young man entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1861 under the guidance of Léon Cogniet, in order to prepare for the Prix de Rome competitions and the evolution of his palette. Bonnefoy opens his horizon in the 1860s by traveling in Provence from where he will bring back many works and inspirations. Following the war of 1870, he returned to his lands in Boulogne sur Mer and in the following years began stays in England and as far as Denmark. The painter will mostly produce bucolic landscapes, where animals and men rub shoulders in the beauty of the country lights.

Our large composition is to be located on a beautiful summer near Henry Bonnefoy's playground, the Boulonnais. The rich and verdant nature, and the rosebushes in bloom could not be synonymous with a landscape of Provence. This almost complete farmyard is composed in the foreground of mallard ducks, Muscovy ducks, hens and roosters with proud crests, flying pigeons around their perch. To complete the scene, dog and cat are on the upper level where they are joined by the mistress of the house with the donkey and the harnessed mare. Presented in a black American box.