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Lot Essay
Hitherto known only from a lithograph (fig. 1) published in 1858 by Goupil, this large and unpublished painting is a variant of another composition (sold Christie's, 18 May 2007, lot 15, fig. 2), and one of a series of paintings featuring a groom and horse in a stable. The horse, named Atalanta, was a favourite subject of the artist's and appears in at least five paintings dating from the mid to late 1850s.
Although a mature work, the genesis of this composition can be traced all the way back to the time the artist spent as a young boy in the studio of his family's close friend, Théodore Géricault, and is indeed strikingly similar to the latter's numerous studies of horses in the stables of Versailles and of grooms tending their horses (fig. 3).
Setting his subjects against a plain background to better throw them into sharp relief, the artist reinforces the grandeur of the animal by thrusting its head forward into the picture plane, setting the vertical angle of the composition very low and stressing its vertical axis. The viewer's eye is led up the parallel line of the horse and groom's legs, following the latter's arm towards his charge's powerfully arched neck, and upwards into the empty space beyond.
De Dreux is aiming above all to convey a sense of movement, and of tamed power. He deploys here not only a superb understanding of anatomy, but also his trademark ability to model his subjects with light and shadow, with shimmering reflections on the animal's coat conveying a sense of latent, nervous energy.
These extraordinary technical and compositional skills combine to show De Dreux as an equestrian painter first and foremost, stripping away the elegant props and fashions that he often used in his more mondain compositions and society commissions, to focus exclusively on the horse's anatomy and strength, and on the symbiotic relationship between man and animal.
The authenticity of this painting has been confirmed by Brame & Lorenceau (letter dated 24 September 2013), who will include it in their digital archive on the artist.
Although a mature work, the genesis of this composition can be traced all the way back to the time the artist spent as a young boy in the studio of his family's close friend, Théodore Géricault, and is indeed strikingly similar to the latter's numerous studies of horses in the stables of Versailles and of grooms tending their horses (fig. 3).
Setting his subjects against a plain background to better throw them into sharp relief, the artist reinforces the grandeur of the animal by thrusting its head forward into the picture plane, setting the vertical angle of the composition very low and stressing its vertical axis. The viewer's eye is led up the parallel line of the horse and groom's legs, following the latter's arm towards his charge's powerfully arched neck, and upwards into the empty space beyond.
De Dreux is aiming above all to convey a sense of movement, and of tamed power. He deploys here not only a superb understanding of anatomy, but also his trademark ability to model his subjects with light and shadow, with shimmering reflections on the animal's coat conveying a sense of latent, nervous energy.
These extraordinary technical and compositional skills combine to show De Dreux as an equestrian painter first and foremost, stripping away the elegant props and fashions that he often used in his more mondain compositions and society commissions, to focus exclusively on the horse's anatomy and strength, and on the symbiotic relationship between man and animal.
The authenticity of this painting has been confirmed by Brame & Lorenceau (letter dated 24 September 2013), who will include it in their digital archive on the artist.