By Alfred de Dreux
Located in Gavere, BE
Halte de chasseurs (The Hunters’ Rest) is a 19th-century French animal and sporting oil painting attributed to Alfred de Dreux (1810–1860). Two huntsmen in red coats pause with their horses and hounds beside a green signpost in a wooded landscape.
One rider remains mounted while his companion stands beside a dark saddled horse. The dogs gather at the lower left, drawing the eye into the scene. Red coats, warm earth tones and dark foliage contrast with a luminous opening in the clouded sky. The vertical composition combines the intimacy of a hunting group with the atmosphere of a woodland landscape.
Alfred de Dreux was a French painter known for equestrian and animal subjects; works by him are held in the Louvre. The gallery offers this unsigned painting as attributed to the artist; it was previously catalogued by Artcurial as French School, after de Dreux.
Oil on canvas. Canvas: approximately H 46 × W 38 cm (18.11 × 14.96 in). Overall with frame: H 62 × W 54 × D 7 cm (24.41 × 21.26 × 2.76 in).
Cleaned and restored, and described by the gallery as being in very good condition. The painting is presented in the ornate gilt frame illustrated, with floral and scrolling ornament that complements the warm palette.
Provenance: anonymous sale, Christie’s, Paris, 12 October 2012, lot 317; private collection, Paris. Illustrated in the sale catalogue on page 90. Artcurial identifies the composition’s source as a lithograph by de Dreux from 1838–1844, reproduced in M.-Chr. Renauld’s Alfred de Dreux (2008), p. 104.
A decorative focal point for a study, library or country-house interior, with particular appeal to collectors of antique animal paintings...
Category
1850s French School Gold Animal Paintings