Carefree Childhood By François-louis Lanfant De Metz (1814-1892)

L'Insouciance de l'enfance

Charming Oil/panel 17.5 X 14

Signed lower right Lanfant

Perfect Condition

Sold with its 19th century frame


The Artist:

François Lanfant was born in Sierck in Moselle, eastern France in 1814.
He died in Le Havre in 1892. The artist always followed his surname Lanfant with the words "de Metz" to indicate his origin.

His master was Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), the great genre painter of the French Romantic School.

The latter quickly detected an extraordinary talent for drawing. From 1843 to 1866, Lanfant de Metz exhibited successfully at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris.

From this date, he settled in Le Havre, painting mainly small-format pictures in which he portrayed the world of carefree childhood, the joy of kids, mischievous and quarrelsome where the child is king.

His genre scenes are sometimes humorous and always perfectly illustrate the spirit of the 19th century.

Lanfant de Metz's line is lively and at the same time precise. The characters' attitudes are full of life and veracity. His palette is very colorful, as he likes to play with children's clothes to make his genre scenes shimmer.

The artist is undoubtedly the 19th-century French painter who treated the theme of childhood with the most emotion and delicacy.

Exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1843 to 1866 Paris
Retrospective of his work in 1926 in Le Havre
Museums Marseille, Paris, Reims...