This oneness of inanimate and animate nature is less completely
realised in the art of Constant Troyon (1810-1865), who, having been
trained as a porcelain-painter, was subsequently attracted by the
romanticism of Dupré, but followed such Dutch masters as Paul Potter in
subordinating the landscape to the cattle. It is for this reason that
Troyon is known to the public as a “cattle-painter” rather than as a
landscape painter. At the same time, he was a close observer of the
effects of light on fields and meadows, which he rendered with a skill
only rivalled by the solidity, the suggestion of weight and movement,
the well-accentuated forms and sinuosities of his cattle. The huge
canvas _Oxen going to Work_ (No. 889) is an unrivalled achievement of
its kind—a piece of realism that is not without poetry and grandeur.
Next to it in importance ranks the _Return to the Farm_ (No. 890).
Among the eleven Troyons (Nos. 2906-2916) of the Thomy Thiéry Bequest,
the _Morning_ (No. 2909) strikes a more cheerful and hopeful note than
is this artist’s wont.
Another artist of this group, who devoted himself almost exclusively
to the painting of sheep, is Charles Jacque (1813-1894), from whose
brush the Louvre owns the _Flock of Sheep in a Landscape_ (No. 430A), a
characteristic work of unusually large dimensions.