Diaz
Narcisse Diaz de la Peña (1809–1876) was born at Bordeaux, the son of political fugitives from Spain, and, like so many artists of this group, started his artistic career as a china-painter. He afterwards gained considerable success with his romantic figure pictures of mythological and Oriental subjects, like the Nymphs in a Wood (No. 2854), Venus and Adonis (No. 2858), Venus disarming Cupid (No. 2859), and above all the Fée aux Perles (No. 256). As a landscape painter he delighted in rendering the sparkle of sunlight penetrating through the dense foliage of forest and brushwood. Diaz must be placed between Isabey and Millet, who followed his example in his early figure pieces; but he was also influenced by Rousseau and by Delacroix. Among his eighteen pictures at the Louvre are several landscapes of superb quality, notably the Study of a Birch Tree (No. 252), Sous Bois (No. 253), and Dogs in the Forest (No. 257a).
Autumnal landscape with a pond in the middle distance on the left, bordered on the right, in the centre of the composition, by a group of oak trees. In the foreground some cattle and a cowherd. Cloudy sky.
Signed on left:—“jules dupré.”
Painted in oil on canvas.
1 ft. 1 in. × 1 ft. 6½ in. (0·32 × 0·46.)