Landscape with Shepherd Playing the Chalumeau

PHILIPPE-JACQUES LOUTHERBOURG (1740-1812)
Paris, dated 1773
oil on canvas
Philippe-Jacques Loutherbourg, a French (and later English) artist of Germanic origin, was elected to the Académie Royale de peinture and appointed painter to Louis XV in 1766. In 1771, he settled in England and pursued his career there.
In this landscape a shepherd is playing the chalumeau, a forerunner of the clarinet. The theme, derived from the pastoral scenes painted the first half of the century, heralds the subjects explored by the romantic painters.

inv. 21169