Hunting table - Louis Godefroy JADIN

Title : Hunting table

Artist : Louis Godefroy JADIN (Paris 1805 - 1882)

Technique : Oil on canvas

Dimensions : 132 x 98 cm

Signed lower right

Son of the composer Louis-Emmanuel Jadin, the young man began under the orders of the great masters Bonnington, Louis Hersent, Abel de Pujol and Paul Hue. After several years of apprenticeship, Jadin exhibited at the Salon in 1831 and abandoning the subject of pure landscape, he devoted himself to hunting subjects. In a few years he became the painter of dogs throughout Paris, and through his friendship with Alexandre Dumas, was introduced to the young Duke of Orléans. He ordered large formats to adorn the dining room of the Tuileries Palace, which unfortunately disappeared in the fire. Shortly after, through his celebrity, Godefroy Jadin became the official hunting painter of Emperor Napoleon III. We owe him some impressive pieces of bravery admired by the entire court.

In this spirit of returning from hunting, our canvas is a real “hunting painting”, just placed on a bright red carpet. A proboscis slips into the middle of a varied game. Hare, pheasant, partridge constitute the classic part of this composition, but they are topped by a small jackdaw and a hawk of which only the legs and the whiteness of the lower feathers are visible. Another bird slightly in shadow is unidentified, but may resemble the warbling of a buzzard.

The opening on the left side onto a hilly landscape with a bright blue sky is not commonplace in still lifes, even in the 19th century. The contrast of this bright bay with the shadow of the upper part is provided by an innovative framing for a subject of this type, which at the time only a painter working for the crown could convey without receiving criticism.