Louis Auguste Second, Known As Féréol (1795–1870) - Still Life With Mallard And Hare - Oil

Louis Auguste SECOND, known as FEREOL
(Amiens, 1795 – Orléans, 1870)

Still life with mallard and hare

Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Signed and dated at the bottom
Exhibition labels in the upper left corner
37 x 27 cm without frame
1854

Louis-Auguste Second, known as Fereol, had an interesting and protean artistic career. He was born into a family of actors: himself the son of an actor, he was the cousin of Marie Dorval (the famous romantic actress who was the mistress of Alfred de Vigny) and the nephew of Mademoiselle Mars. After attending the Saint-Cyr military school, he became a second lieutenant in the young imperial guard, and took part in the French campaign in 1814. But he quickly converted to the show business and in 1817 became a lyric singer (tenor) at the Opéra-Comique where he officiated until 1838, before exercising his talents at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. He was also a playwright (he wrote for example "Cinq ans d'entr'acte" in 1833). A fairly famous figure at the time, his miniature portrait by Paul Gomien was exhibited at the Salon of 1835. Painting was another of his activities, and not the least. A student of Xavier Leprince, he exhibited at the Salon from 1824, and this very regularly until 1848. In 1834, he presented no fewer than 7 paintings there! These are essentially landscapes, in a fairly classical style, representing views of the North (Douai, Boulogne, etc.), Picardy (Amiens), Paris and its surroundings, Fontainebleau, and especially Sologne and Orléans, the city where he attended high school. At the Salon, he was domiciled in Paris at various addresses in the Batignolles district until 1835, then in Orléans from 1837. Widowed in 1832 by his cousin Eugénie Boutet de Monvel, whom he had married in 1822, he retired to his property "L'ormette" in Saint-Denis en Val in the Loiret, before settling permanently in Orléans itself in 1846. He led a fairly active social life there (he had already founded the Musical Institute there, for example). His son Félix was born there in 1825, and became a lawyer before embarking on a career as a doctor. A staunch Bonapartist and recipient of the Medal of Saint Helena, he received the Legion of Honor in 1862. His heightened patriotism manifested itself one last time when he committed suicide on September 5, 1870, after learning of the capitulation of Sedan. He was the great-grandfather of the brothers Jacques and Pierre Brissaud, the famous painters and illustrators.

Representative of the French tradition of hunting still lifes, this painting depicts a hanging mallard, a hare lying on a bale of straw, and an assortment of vegetables arranged in a rustic setting. The whole is carefully organized in a vertical composition dominated by warm, earthy tones. The meticulous realism of the plumage, fur, and plant materials demonstrates great technical mastery and careful attention to textural effects. The dramatic lighting, focused on the central elements, reinforces the physical presence of the objects while detaching them from a dark and neutral background, in a chiaroscuro inherited from the schools of the North. This type of subject, very popular in the 19th century, continues the tradition of animal and hunting painters like Oudry or Desportes, while bringing a more intimate and rustic touch. It is also part of a decorative vein that responds to the bourgeois craze for scenes evoking nature and hunting pleasures.