Shepherd with a Flock at a Well

Louis Le Nain

Basic information

ID: Ж-2417
Author: Louis Le Nain
Name: Shepherd with a Flock at a Well
Technique: oil painting
Material: wood oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 33.5 x 39.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: genre art
Plot: Pastoral scene
Provenance: Collection of Lviv City Gallery
Exposition: Potocki Palace

Information about author

Author: Louis Le Nain
Artist's lifetime: 1593–1648
Country: France
Biography: Louis Le Nain (1593–1648) was a French genre painter from the town of Lens (Picardy). He was born into a bourgeois family. He opened his own workshop in Paris with his brothers, who were also artists. In the artist's early works, features of Caravaggism are evident, influenced by his trip to Italy. Louis Le Nain's realistic manner of painting, devoid of the theatricality and flamboyance of Baroque, was almost a century ahead of its time. A master of group portraits depicting peasant life, he approached his subjects with a solemn monumentality. The artist's paintings lack moralising elements.

Object description

The painting, probably by Louis Le Nain, depicts a shepherd drawing a bucket of water from a well to quench the thirst of his livestock. The ox, cow, donkey, ram with an ewe, and dog are depicted in detail and masterfully, almost portrait-like. The figures are arranged closely together, resembling a bas-relief, while a fragment of blue sky with a pearly cloud in the upper right corner provides a striking contrast. The shepherd is depicted at work in conditions that are reminiscent of poverty. However, a philosophical calm resonates distinctly – one gets the impression that the moment is frozen in time due to observing everyday life. The idea of classical simplicity in domestic life frequently appears in French painting, sometimes with equally meaningful interpretations, but more often with a sense of superficial equilibrium, only externally resonating with the ideal of humanity that Louis Le Nain introduced into his art. There are many imitations of the style of the Le Nain brothers, which always lack the elevation and harmony of all elements.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Shepherd with a Flock at a Well

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