(Paris 1851–1910)
Une Bergère (A Shepherdess with Her Cattle), signed Julien Dupré, oil on canvas, 74 x 92.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Italy.

We are grateful to Howard L. Rehs, Rehs Galleries Inc. for confirming the authenticity on the basis of a high-resolution photograph. The work has been included in the online catalogue raisonné of Julien Dupré ref. no. T1147.

A certificate issued by Howard L. Rehs dated 25 August 2022 is available.

Julien Dupré was born in 1851 and produced works in the French rural tradition until his death in 1910. He studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs to prepare his application to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. There he entered the studio of Isidore Pils and then, from 1875, that of Henri Lehman.
Like Dupré, other Naturalist painters such as Jules Bastien-Lepage, Dagnan-Bouveret and Léon Lhermitte showed a growing interest in depicting the ordinary life rural people.

Dupré made his debut at the Salon on 1 May 1876 and won his first medal in 1880. After a promising debut at the Salon, the art dealers Goupil and Knoedler started buying his work. Arthur Tooth then also purchased works from Dupré in order to introduce him to a British audience. By the mid-1880s most of those paintings were handled by Etienne Boussod in Montmartre, the son-in-law of the art dealer Goupil. In 1887 Dupré was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. He was awarded a medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 and the Legion of Honour.

The shepherdess in this painting seems quietly alert, gazing over the flock of sheep in her charge. Thus idyllic rendition of country life combines all the hallmarks of Dupré’s most sought-after works: a girl at work in an expansive landscape, exuding the integrity and innocence typically associated with rural communities in the second half of the 19th century.