Evariste Vital Luminais

Evariste Vital Luminais. Oil on paper mounted on canvas "le lapin et le chasseur" signed lower left Ev. Luminais. 41 X 33 cm. French school.
Evariste Vital Luminais (1822-1896) was a pupil of Léon Cogniet (1794-1880) and Constant Troyon (1810-1865). He made his debut at the Salon in 1843, and continued to exhibit hunting scenes, animal paintings and occasional genre canvases regularly each year. His technique is quite vigorous, his brushwork nourished and his composition lacking neither charm nor humor (sources: Bénézit, dictionnaire des peintres et sculpteurs).
All is well summed up, and the mischievous rabbit thus taunting the hunter, in a bad position, gives him only a fraction of a second to adjust his aim and hope to bring back something for dinner tonight, in vain.
Our painting is a fine example of the work of Luminais, whose talent is on a par with that of his contemporary Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), except for the fact that the Nantes-born painter oriented his art towards history painting, as evidenced by his famous paintings of Celts, Gauls and Merovingians.
Luminais spent part of his life in Berry, more precisely in Brenne, in the Indre department, where he came to Douadic in summer to practice the art of painting in his studio.
It's a safe bet that our rabbit gambolled happily in the Brenne heath where, for the duration of a painting, he played off our Berrichon hunter.
Many national and international museums possess his works.
Modern wood and gilded stucco frame. Two small losses of material at the bottom towards the middle. Good condition.
2200 euros