Constant Troyon, August 28, 1810 – February 21, 1865, was a French painter associated with the Barbizon School. Although he began his career as a landscape painter, he became one of the nineteenth century’s leading animal painters, especially renowned for his depictions of cattle and pastoral life.
Born in Sèvres, Troyon initially painted porcelain for the Sèvres manufactory before turning to landscape painting. Influenced by the forests of Fontainebleau and by Dutch seventeenth-century animal painters, he combined carefully observed landscapes with powerful studies of cattle, sheep, and rural labor. His paintings were widely admired during his lifetime and received medals at the Paris Salon and the Exposition Universelle.
Today Troyon’s work is represented in major museums including the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, the Clark Art Institute, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. His paintings remain among the finest examples of the Barbizon School’s celebration of the French countryside.
Atelier Nadar
Photograph of Constant Troyon, c 1856
Road in the Woods, c 1845
Oil on canvas, 22.9 x 19 in
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Cattle Drinking, 1851
Oil on oak panel, 30.9 x 20.4 in
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Going to Market on a Misty Morning, 1851
Oil on panel, 25 11/16 x 20 11/16 in
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
The Gamekeeper, c 1852
Oil on panel, 18 1/8 x 14 3/4 in
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
Landscape with Cattle and Sheep, c 1852–1858
Oil on canvas, 38 1/2 x 51 1/2 in
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis
Oxen Walking to Pasture, Morning Sky, 1855
Oil on canvas, 103.1 x 153.9 in
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Apple Harvest in Normandy, c 1855–1860
Oil on canvas, 24 x 32 in
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Coast near Villers, c 1859
Oil on canvas, 26.5 x 37.7 in
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Cow Scratching, 1859
Oil on canvas, 44.4 x 57.2 in
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Oxen Plowing, 1860
Oil on canvas, 38 1/4 x 51 1/8 in
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
Brook Through the Forest, c 1860
Oil on panel, 12.7 x 18.3 in
Louvre Museum, Paris
Entrance into the Forest, c 1846–1850
Watercolor on paper, 7 9/16 x 5 3/8 in
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
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