Contact gallery for price		Charles-Emile Jacque 1813 – Paris - 1894 La Basse-Cour devant la Fermet Pencil on tan wove paper 7.3 x 9 cm. Signed: Ch. J. Charles Emile Jacque began his career at the age of seventeen, apprenticed to a map engraver in Paris, where he learned the technique of drypoint. He then enlisted in the French army for six years and during his service began sketching his surroundings. Following his military service, Jacque became established as a printmaker in London. The master then returned to France by 1830 where he stayed for the remainder of his life. While in France, Jacque developed a fondness for nature, making frequent trips to Burgundy to paint and draw rural landscapes, farm interiors and animals. Although already a well known engraver and printmaker, he turned increasingly toward painting, discovering Barbizon where he settled in 1849. He quickly integrated and became a member of the Barbizon school which included his colleagues Dupre, Rousseau and Diaz de la Pena. Throughout the rest of his career, Jacque drew as well as painted genre scenes of the rural Fontainebleau landscape. Through his art, Jacque strove to express the comfort he found in nature, as well as communicate his belief in the harmful effects of the nineteenth century industrialization on the natural world and simple, rustic country life. Our drawing indeed personifies Jacque’s talent for capturing the French countryside. A farmhouse dominates the composition, nestled between patches of bushes and hills. His trademark hens strut quietly on the right bank; a small stream flows from the edge of the house toward the foreground, flowing out to meet the viewer. Jacque works with a delicate touch, yet the pencil strokes are drawn strongly enough in the darkest areas to convey light and shadow. Of the Barbizon artists, it was Jacque who worked on the smallest scale, as evident here, and portrayed his subjects with unusual intimacy and sensitivity for the time. The artist’s warm admiration for this scene is rendered through careful and sympathetic portrayal.