Paillet, Paris, April 9, , lot Paris, Salon , , no. Colin, Paris, , pp. Around he entered the studio of Carle Van Loo and won petits prix at the Academy in and In he was accepted into the Academy, followed by full membership in as a history painter.
Starting in he began to exhibit regularly at the Salon. By he had become a full professor at the Academy. His production encompassed historical as well as religious subjects, portraits and genre. These works are now regarded as his most memorable. The shared emotional bond between the father and son in this painting is obvious. Images of love and domesticity in literature and art especially among the lower classes gained ascendancy starting in the s, to reach a crescendo by the s.
Such images were the direct reflection of the new ideas put forth by the philosophers of the Enlightenment, most notably those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Everywhere in paintings, novels and the theater as well as medical, philosophical and educational tracts the image of the happy and healthy often humble family were idealized and popularized.
Rousseau especially held paternal love as crucial for social order in this new world. Our gardener, surrounded by the tools of his trade, accompanied by his young son eat and drink in a simple setting enveloped by a feeling of mutual satisfaction. In his personal life he was known for his generous donations to the poor.
A preparatory drawing for this painting was formerly in the Edmond and Jules de Goncourt Collection, Paris from which it was sold February , , lot The brothers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt were French art critics who were responsible for reintroducing the taste for eighteenth century art, a period which had been out of favor since the rise of Jacques Louis David.
