Sold at Auction: Charles Emile Jacque

(b Paris, France, 1813; d Barbizon, France, 1894) French artist. Charles Emile Jacque began his training in engraving as an apprentice to a map engraver. After a brief military service, he made his Salon debut in 1832. In effort to avoid the plague in Paris, he relocated with his family to the artist’s colony of Barbizon in 1849, on a property adjoining fellow artist, Jean-Francois Millet, at the edge of Fontainebleau Forest. Although Jacque arrived at the rural village as a printmaker and a sometime chronicler of peasant life, he evolved one of the principal animaliers of 19th century France. During the 1860s, Jacque's international fame and financial success far exceeded that of the other members of the Barbizon School, such as Millet or Rousseau. His paintings of shepherdesses sheltering their flocks in the shadow of the great oaks of the Forest of Fontainebleau become one of the defining images of Barbizon paintings. He was awarded to the Legion d’honneur in 1867. Jacque’s etchings were inspired by the revival of seventeenth century Dutch techniques, embodying a sense of freedom and frankness. He also provided the illustration for many books, including Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield, Alexander de Larborde’s Ancient and Modern Versailles, and the works of Shakespeare. (Credit: Sotheby’s, New York, 19th Century European Art, April 23, 2004, Lot 3.)