Théodore LÉVIGNE (1848-1912), The Hunt, 1884

Théodore Lévigne was born in Noirétable (Loire) in 1848 and died in Lyon on November 11, 1912.
In 1856, his father, a shoemaker, moved to Lyon's Saint-Jean district.
At the age of twelve, Théodore entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. In 1863, at the age of fifteen, he was awarded the school's highest distinction: the Laurier d'Or.
Receiving a scholarship from the city of Lyon, he decided to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he lived in the 6th arrondissement.
When the Franco-Prussian war broke out, he enlisted and was wounded in the left hand during a battle at Nuits-Saint-Georges. He later painted many war scenes. In 1893, he joined his brother Léon at the Arche farm in Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or to share their common passion in a bucolic setting.
Here, Lévigne's work shows us a moment of rest for dogs and hunters after a hunt. There's a certain aestheticism to this painting: the attitude of the two men, the decorum of nature and the twilight that fades into the background make this a true masterpiece of hunting representation.
The 19th century was nostalgic for the venery of the Ancien Régime, and considered its golden age to lie between the Marquis de Dampierre's appointment as Louis XV's premier veneur and the French Revolution.