Pascal-Adolphe Dagnan-Bouveret

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 1985, lot 33, illustrated
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale; and sold: Christie's, New York, May 6, 1998, lot 214, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Gabriel P. Weisberg, Against the Modern, Dagnan-Bouveret and the Transformation of the Academic Tradition, New York, 2002, pp. 66-67, 68, 73-74, illustrated p. 68, fig. 66

Unlined. Widely patterned craquelure throughout. Under UV: Heavy varnish fluoresces. Two spots of inpainting along left in hay. A few dashes of old restoration in frontmost horse. Dashes and spots of inpainting to figure on left's trouser, figure on right's belt, and to horse's tack.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Like Émile Zola and the Naturalist writers of the late nineteenth century who jotted down impressions of Parisian life, Dagnan-Bouveret filled his sketchbooks with quick studies of the topography, people, and objects of Corre in the Haute-Saône.  Observing farming and animal husbandry practices provided him inspiration, and extant drawings of such scenes evidently shaped A Stable's final compositions. From the weathered lantern hanging from the rafters to the flash of a white cigarette held in the roughly textured hands of a workman, each pictorial element was chosen to "heighten the illusion of reality"—a hallmark of Dagnan-Bouveret's production and that of his fellow Naturalist painters (Weisberg, pp. 66-67). By the mid 1880s, photography became an important tool in capturing moments too fleeting for the pencil or brush. The varying poses of the horses shifting from leg to leg as they eat their hay, for example, are precisely and accurately recorded, likely with the aid of photographs taken in and around Corre, thereby heightening the scene's immediacy (Weisberg, p. 68).  While Dagnan-Bouvert would expand on these early experiments in following years with larger canvases, the intimate scale of A Stable helped establish the artist's role as a leading figure in the Naturalist movement just as it was becoming an international phenomenon (Weisberg, p. 74).