He first exhibited at the Salon in 1832,
and for nearly twenty years was known as a landscape painter. His work
at that time was eclectic, sufficiently in touch with Rousseau, whose
acquaintance he had made, to be of interest, but never revolutionary
enough to alarm the academical juries of the Salon. In 1849, after
a visit to Holland, he turned his attention to animal painting, and
became in that field the first of his time. In common with his quondam
comrades in the porcelain manufactory, Troyon delighted in warmth and
richness of tone and color; but in the rendering of the texture and
color of cattle the quality availed him greatly, and as objects in his
foreground the landscape environment gained in depth by its judicious
use. Troyon will be chiefly remembered by the pictures painted from
1846 to 1858. The later years of his life, until his death in 1865,
were passed with a clouded intellect.
[Illustration: THE GOOD SAMARITAN. FROM A PAINTING BY THEODULE RIBOT.
From the Salon of 1870; now in the Luxembourg. The story of the man
who went down to Jericho and fell among thieves is here treated as a
pretext for a forcible effect of light and shade, though it is also a
novel and dramatic presentation of the scene.]
The youngest of the group proper was Charles Francois Daubigny, who
was born in Paris in 1817, and died there in 1878.
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