19th Century French Aubusson Painting, Framed

Description

Offering a beautiful and whimsical original French Aubusson tapestry pattern painting featuring a lively rendition of the French poet Jean … more Offering a beautiful and whimsical original French Aubusson tapestry pattern painting featuring a lively rendition of the French poet Jean de la Fontaine's famous fable "The Wolf Turned Shepherd." Painted in oil on canvas or gouache on paper, these paintings are the life-size patterns from which Aubusson tapestries were woven. The wool and silks were dyed to match the artist's painting, and the weaver then copied it.

To that end, you will see many interesting signs of this painting's use as a working pattern, including light creases, scratches and tiny pin holes. There are also faint traces of under-drawing visible beneath this work, including the notations "siège" and "coupé," which suggest the pattern might have served as the template for the seatback of a horse-drawn carriage. Of course, all of these wonderful idiosyncrasies enhance the antique character of the painting, as well as rouse the imagination. Although the patina is distressed, the overall feeling is that of abundance, elegance and beauty.

The fable that is the subject of this painting is about a wolf that disguised himself in a shepherd's clothing and passed unnoticed close to the flock while the shepherd and his dog were asleep. Although the wolf might have then seized his prey, in his conceit, he instead thought to imitate the voice of the shepherd calling his flock to lure the sheep away. But when the wolf tried to speak, all he could do was howl loudly, thus waking the shepherd and his dog. The dog took chase, and the wolf found he could neither run nor fight while still dressed in the shepherd's clothes. The moral of the story? A deceitful person will always give himself away, so it is never safe to cheat! less