Antique French Oil Painting on Board by Desvarreux, 1876-1963

During the late 19th century, the French system of government, known as the Third Republic, began to distance itself from the Latin church. As a result, artists at French academies of art began to produce works known as “cardinal paintings”, which were satirical renderings of church dignitaries dressed in vibrant red robes, enjoying their privileged lifestyles. This particular oil on board painting by Emile Meyer...

A beautiful oil on canvas rendering of a stag hunt, presented in a fluted giltwood frame with a bundled husk border and large, parted leaves in the corners. The painting is signed in the lower right corner by the artist, “H. de Forges”, a member of the Barbizon French school of the late 1800s, who specialized in animal hunt scenes. The vibrancy of de Forges’ painting has not diminished over time; the colors seem to pop right off the canvas. A blue sky with some low-lying white clouds hangs above trees mainly bereft of leaves, indicating it is late autumn. Slender grass, ranging from green to brown, surrounds a watering hole in the middle of a clearing, with a single stag near the water’s edge. Eight white hunting dogs with black and tan markings surround the deer on one side of the pond. Behind the pack is a brown horse ridden by a huntsman dressed in red and black, preparing to sound the hunting horn. Two more riders in red, black, and white, also on brown horses, are emerging from a small hill behind the deer. Hunting, always a very important pastime in France, became one of the more popular genres in 19th century art, along with with quality pastoral and landscape paintings. Realism was a defining feature of the Barbizon School, as artists were attracted to spending more time living and painting in the natural world. Our hunt scene depicts the surrounding of prey, or pre-hunt revelry. The beautifully colored oil on canvas stag hunt painting...

Antique oil painting on board by H. G. Ontrop (1880-1955) is a slightly more impressionistic work than typical for the artist, with wisp...

A scene of the Thames River near Richmond (outside of London). Unsigned, with hand written note attached verso as pictured. The elegant painting in original giltwood frame Dimensions...