Peasants at Rest

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince

Basic information

ID: Ж-862
Author: Jean-Baptiste Le Prince
Name: Peasants at Rest
Technique: oil painting
Material: tinplate oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 14 x 19.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: landscape
Plot: Landscape
Provenance: Purchased in 1940
Exposition: Potocki Palace

Information about author

Author: Jean-Baptiste Le Prince
Author in the original: Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Le Prince
Artist's lifetime: 1734–1781
Country: France
Biography: Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Le Prince (1734–1781) was a French Rococo painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Le Prince entered the history of world art as the inventor of the "lavis" printmaking technique – a variety of aquatint in which acid is applied with a brush directly onto a metal plate. He is also considered the founder of the fashion for the "exotic Eastern European genre" in French painting.
He was a pupil of François Boucher and drew inspiration from the work of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish artists.
From 1758 to 1763, he worked on paintings at the imperial court in St Petersburg. He travelled extensively throughout the country, capturing local everyday life, national types, and costumes in numerous sketches from nature. Having gathered rich ethnographic material, the artist returned to Paris, where in 1765 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
After 1770, Le Prince's health deteriorated. He left Paris and moved to the French province. There, he painted landscapes and scenes of peasant life, which under his brush acquired pastoral elegance and grace.

Object description

In the foreground in the centre, above the river, there is a group of four men. One of them, holding a stick, stands facing forward, while the other three sit on the ground. To their right, under a tree, is a cart with a semi-circular canopy and a blue cover. Near the cart stand unhitched horses. In the background, a valley with trees and mountains on the horizon is depicted. The sky is blue and slightly cloudy.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Peasants at Rest

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