Lot 75: Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (French, 1852-1929) Le retour du troupeau

Le retour du troupeau
signed 'PAS-DAGNAN-B' (lower left)
oil on canvas
79 x 130cm (31 1/8 x 51 3/16in).

PROVENANCE:
Duchess de Marchena (Mme Walford, London);
Private European collection.

EXHIBITED:
Salon de la Société des artistes français 1924, no. 533;
Cercle de l'Union artistique, 5 rue Boissy d"Anglas, 1924, no. 24;
Exposition rétrospective, May 5-31, 1930. no. 89.

LITERATURE:
Gabriel P. Weisberg, Against the Modern. Dagnan-Bouveret and the Transformation of the Academic Tradition, ex. cat., (New York: Dahesh Museum of Art and New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002)

Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants exposés au Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Avenue Alexandre III, le 30 Avril 1924 (Paris: Imprimerie Georges Lang, 1924),
p.27, no. 533 Retour du troupeau (Franche-Comté). At the same Salon Dagnan-Bouveret exhibited two other works, no. 534 'Paysanne de Franche-Comté' and
no. 535 'Mon Portrait en 1917' (reproduced in the Salon catalogue on p. 45).

Catalogue des oeuvres de M. Dagnan-Bouveret (Peintures) (Paris: Chez Maurice Rousseau, 1930), p. 29.

Institut de France-Académie des Beaux-Arts. Catalogue des oeuvres de Dagnan-Bouveret exposées à l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts du 5 au 31 mai, 1930., p. 14, no. 89: Le Retour du troupeau (1924) Appartient à Mme...

(This is the catalogue published at the time of the Dagnan-Bouveret retrospective exhibition at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1930, one year after his death.)

The two paintings exhibited in 1924, 'Le Retour du troupeau' and 'Paysanne de Framche-Comté' are the last two naturalist paintings Dagnan-Bouveret executed. However, it appears that Dagnan-Bouveret had the idea for Le Troupeau early on, when in 1893 he wrote to his friend, the writer Henri Amic that I: "rêve aussi d'un Retour des champs-bêtes et gens, vaches, jeunes filles, paysans ...", [dream of a return from the fields- [with] animals and people, cows, young girls, and peasants] quoted from a letter to Amic dated June 30 1893, see Pauline Grisel, [not published] "D.E.A. d'Histoire de l'Art-Université Lumière de Lyon 2", p. 77.

See also: the unpublished "Catalogue chronologique des oeuvres by Marie Legrand", who establishes the fact that the painting was in the retrospective exhibition of 1930, no. 89, and notes that the painting measured: H. 78 x W. 128 cm, as well as note the provenance listed above.

While it seems strange that Dagnan-Bouveret, after having produced many portraits and religious compositions, from 1894 on until 1923—except for an occasional genre scene—decided to go back to his original love for realist themes and the region of the Franche-Comté. Was it for a special commission or, as noted in the letter to Amic, because he was growing tired of portraits and religious compositions, and wanted to go back to the type of subjects, which had made his reputation? Did he realize that he had taken the wrong path by painting rather staged portraits of wealthy donors, as well as realizing that religious paintings done in the manner of the Renaissance masters were passé? Whatever the reasons behind his decision, Le Retour du troupeau and probably Paysanne de Franche-Comté, hark back to the best period of Dagnan-Bouveret's career.

We are extremely grateful to Gabriel P. Weisberg, University of Minnesota, for compiling this catalogue entry.