Paul Leroy - Young Shepherdess From The Creuse

Paul LEROY
Paris, 1860 - Paris, 1942
Young Shepherdess from the Creuse
Oil on canvas
54 x 72 cm (70 x 87 cm with frame)
Signed anddated in the lower left corner “Paul Leroy / Sardent”
Paintingexhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1921 and titled “YoungShepherdess from the Marche"
Original frame
Very good condition

Paul Leroy was an academic painter and a student of Alexandre Cabanel; he was equally adept at religious, Orientalist, and Creuse-inspired painting. He created his works with unwavering passion. He was deeply devoted to both his Christian faith and Eastern civilization (he learned Arabic, frequently traveled to North Africa—especially Algeria—and, together with Etienne Dinet, founded the Society of French Orientalist Painters in 1893). And he grew attached to the Creuse region, its landscapes, and its people.
We see the qualities of a master painter in this work—those of a “master of light” who knew how to capture the beauty of nature and his subjects, while remaining true to human expression and the details of the natural world.
Our painting is set in Sardent, which is in the Marche region. It was exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1821 under the title “Young Shepherdess of the Marche.” There is a very beautiful red chalk drawing—a pencil study of the model for the young girl in our painting—preserved at the Albertina in Vienna, bearing the inscription: “Drawing made in Sardent (Creuse) after a shepherdess (1920) for the painting exhibited at the 1921 Salon under the title ‘Young Shepherdess from the Marche.’ It subsequently served as the basis for his painting *Young Shepherdess from the Marche*, exhibited at the 1921 Paris Salon, the current location of which is unknown (catalog *Le Salon de 1921*, no. 1227: “Young Shepherdess from the Marche”; Leroy 1974, p. 136, under Section V “Miscellaneous Subjects”: “Young Shepherdess from the Marche, in Sardent, 1921 Salon”)”
Paul Leroy’s paintings are held, among other places, in the fine arts museums of Rouen, Lille, Autun, and Nemours, at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and at the Vatican Pinacoteca.