Thomas Taylor's Pre-impressionist School, "the Milkmaid In The Morning, Mantes-la-jolie"

Pre-Impressionist School: Thomas Taylor. Oil on canvas, “The Milkmaid in the Morning, Mantes-la-Jolie,” signed lower right “T. Taylor.” 38 x 55 cm (36.5 x 53.5 cm visible area). French School.
Thomas Taylor was born in Paris on March 4, 1844. He studied under Charles Gleyre (1808–1874) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904). He entered the École des Beaux-Arts on March 13, 1863, and exhibited at the Salon from 1865 to 1881 (sources: Bénézit Dictionary of Painters and Sculptors).
We do not have the date of the artist’s death, but we can appreciate the fact that, having ceased to participate in the Salon prematurely, this highly talented painter left this world in the prime of his life.
From Gleyre and Gérôme, the young painter absorbed a sense of linear precision and color accuracy, thereby equipping himself with all the tools needed to make the most of his precocious talent.
At that time, Mantes-la-Jolie and its riverbanks captivated the greatest landscape painters, who sought to immortalize the banks of the Seine—a task made easier on canvas by the area’s unique topography.
Whether it was Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796–1875), Charles François Daubigny (1817–1878), or his contemporary Claude Monet (1840–1926), Thomas Taylor masterfully follows in the footsteps of these great landscape painters.
While Corot produced some thirty paintings depicting the Collegiate Church and the Mantes Bridge around the years 1855–1870, and while Daubigny was traveling along the Seine aboard the Botin, his studio boat, in the 1860s and 1870s, and when Monet was staying nearby, in Vétheuil and Bennecourt, shortly thereafter, the young Taylor, drawing inspiration from those who had contributed so much to the history of art, also added his own touch to the legacy.
Our painting depicts a young milkmaid standing at the bow of her boat, maneuvering the mooring buoy—an anchor barrel—that keeps her close to the shore of Île de Limay, facing Mantes-la-Jolie, while her milk pails rest at the stern of the boat.
Soon, the young peasant girl will make her way to the foot of the collegiate church of Mantes, on the market square, to sell the still-warm milk she has milked from the udders of the plump cows of Limay.  
A masterpiece imbued with delicacy and rural poetry.
Works by Thomas Taylor are very rare on the market.
An oil on canvas, 59.5 x 73.5 cm, titled “Ancien Chemin de Vitré à Pocé,” was sold for 15,000 euros at Christie’s London on October 14, 1999.
Modern wooden frame with gilded stucco. A minor restoration in the upper left corner among the clouds, which does not interfere with the viewing of the work. Good condition.
4,800 euros