Théophile Mayan (1860-1936) Shepherdess And Her Dog Guarding The Sheep

An authentic and moving subject, a lovely testimony to bucolic life in Provence in the 19th century. The work is in good condition, only a few cracks from use, it is presented in a gilded frame which measures 87 cm by 103 cm and 65 cm by 81 cm for the canvas alone. It represents a landscape around the Luberon animated by a shepherdess leaning on her stick with a dog at her feet, certainly a crau shepherd, who are watching a flock of sheep. A great serenity and an atmosphere of relaxation emerges from this pretty work which is signed and dated 1901 at the bottom right. He was a pupil of Gaston Saintpierre, Georges Laugée and Antoine Vollon. He exhibited at the Salon des artistes français from 1883 to 1930: he obtained an honorable mention in 1894 for During the harvest, Provence and in 1899 a 3rd class medal for Rencontre matinale, Provence. He mainly creates scenes representing peasant women (haymakers, shepherdesses) as well as rural landscapes. He paints rustic scenes imbued with a concern for idealization, observed around Marseilles, Arles and in the Camargue. Elzéard Rougier, critic and defender of Provencal culture, said of him: "The rural beauty fascinates him, he studies it with love, he follows it, enthusiastic, through the golden broom and along the porcelain ponds. azure, in the small pine woods where the cicadas sing their canticle of ardent obsession. The women of Arles especially tempt him and preoccupy him”. Some of his works can be found in museums: Thomas-Henry Museum (Cherbourg-en-Cotentin): Goats grazing, pastel on paper, 50.5 × 90.2 cm Boucher-de-Perthes Museum (Abbeville): Landscape with a flock of sheep, oil on canvas, 52.9 × 67.8 cm Gassendi Museum (Digne): The Alpilles and the plain of Eygalières in spring, In the sands of the Durance Calvet Museum (Avignon): The two shepherdesses , return from the fields, L'Étang de Salse with the Canigou, Mme Léotard He also produced religious scenes for churches such as that of Trinité-La-Palud in Marseille where he painted a painting representing Saint Jean de Matha and Saint Félix de Valois, founders of the order of the Trinitarians and wearing the red and blue cross on their chest, imploring on their knees a Virgin and Child figured at the top of the painting and on the other hand, for the chapel of the souls of the purgatory, two mounted canvases representing one the angel Gabriel holding a chalice and the other an angel carrying a soul.