Nature and Art, June 1, 18(5(5.] 
ART NOTES FROM FRANCE. 
29 
under such a regime, he should have become one of 
the most daring of reformers. But at the moment 
when he was issuing from the little world at Sevres, 
to commence the battle of life, he fell in with Diaz, 
and other clever artists of the new generation, 
who had already emancipated themselves from 
the bonds of classic tyranny, from the frigid rules 
of the Academy, and declared that Art was a 
thing to be studied directly, and not, as it were, 
through media that produced a double refrac- 
tion. Naturally startled at such heresy, Troy on 
at first stoutly defended his early faith ; but he 
soon began to reflect seriously upon what he 
heard ; he put the arguments of his new friends 
to the test of actual experiment, sat down in 
the spirit of true devotion at the feet of Nature, 
and soon became her ardent devotee. It was not 
long before he declared openly and positively that 
in future Nature should be his idol, and his 
own convictions his sole Academy. The grief of 
his family and early teachers at his defection caused 
young Troyon poignant suffering ; but it was not a 
matter of will, but one of absolute and inevitable 
fate : he was convinced, and he could not retract. 
He refused absolutely to accept any of the dogmas 
presented to him ; he renounced any pretension to 
classicality, or any other scholastic ity ; he would 
not even set up for an animal-painter or for a 
landscape-painter, attach himself to any class, or 
bind himself by any bonds whatever ; but simply 
went out into the presence of Nature, pencil in 
hand, studied intensely all he saw, fixed upon 
whatever attracted his sympathy, and used all the 
art which he had acquired by laborious practice to fix 
his impressions on his canvas. He declined to copy 
any more mythological beauties, or to study any 
more classical groups, and flung himself, according 
to the opinion of the instructors and friends of his 
youth, into the yawning gulf of vulgar realism. 
As regards the outer world of art, he had not to 
struggle against the fierce tide of opposition which 
met Eugene Delacroix and would have engulfed 
any less vigorous and less determined swimmer. 
In .the first place, Troyon came before the critics 
a few years later than Delacroix ; and, secondly, 
he was, in the eyes of the great critics, a mere 
strange animal -painter, with some attempt at 
landscape in the way of background ; he did not 
trench upon classic ground, he belonged to the 
outsiders, and was considerately tolerated as a 
man with certain abilities of an inferior class. 
He was therefore successful, or rather not unsuc- 
cessful, at the very outset of his public career ; but 
his genius expanded gradually : he went on step by 
step, and the last picture that he exhibited was 
perhaps the best he ever painted. He gained his 
first prize, a third-class medal, in 1838; one of the 
second class in 1840 ; first-class medals in 1846 and 
1848 ; and in 1849 was decorated with the Cross 
of the Legion of Honour, having thus firmly esta- 
blished his reputation within a dozen years from his 
first appearance in public. After this, his popu- 
larity grew rapidly ; he was awarded a medal at 
the Universal Exhibition of 1855, and his pictures 
always attracted hosts of admirers at the Paris 
salon. He painted animals as few have ever 
painted them — not so grandly as Paul Potter, or 
Rosa Bonheur ; not so poetically, nor so exqui- 
sitely as Landseer : his cattle, sheep, and dogs are 
every-day working animals, with the dirt and the 
wear upon them ; but they are all living, breathing, 
real creatures. Llis landscapes are at once solid 
and bright, real and poetic ; his atmospheric 
effects are marvellous, and raise his works into the 
high domain of poetic art. His sheep going to 
market in the morning are enveloped in an atmo- 
sphere of mist and dust, glorified by the first rays 
of the rising sun. His oxen returning from labour 
trudge home heavily, weary, soiled, and reeking 
in the evening air. His pictures are not only true 
to Nature, but complete, harmonious, and stamped 
with the true seal of genius. 
Troyon’s works sold so readily that few of his 
finished pictures remained in his own possession ; 
but the exhibition of his minor productions created 
intense interest ; the sketches, mostly completed in 
the presence of Nature, were eagerly disputed, and 
the sale realized half a million of francs (£20,000). 
In spite of a naturally weak constitution, Troyon’s 
industry was enormous, and failing health only 
made him more determined to push on his work. 
He was threatened with blindness, and avowedly 
applied himself more and more intensely, in order, 
as he said, to take all possible advantage of the re- 
maining light. He died at an age when most great 
artists are only entering upon the last phase of their 
career, upon their last manner ; but he had doubt- 
less done his work, and to the very last moment 
when the palette fell from his weary hand, he 
never abandoned the mistress to whom he had 
sworn allegiance in the first glow of his intellec- 
tual maturity. He never quitted Nature and Art 
to dance attendance in an ante chamber, or to woo 
the reigning idol of the hour ; yet he left behind 
him such a fortune as few artists have amassed. 
He who can thus stand alone, be true to himself, 
and earn the applause of all whose praise is worth 
having, is, whether his style and his subjects be 
grand or modest, classic or realistic, a great man 
and a great artist. 
The Comte de Nieuwerkerke has brought to 
light an authentic portrait of the Ducliesse de la 
Valliere, by Mignard, which is considered to afford 
conclusive evidence that not one of the current 
portraits of the lady is a likeness. Such is the 
opinion of critics well qualified to judge, and, 
amongst the rest, of M. Eudore Soulie, the keeper 
of the Versailles gallery, where a copy of the picture 
in question has lately been exhibited. The portrait 
represents Madame de la Valliere at the moment 
when she is resolving in her own mind to quit the 
court for the convent ; she is dressed with all the 
luxury of the period, but a rose in her hand lets 
fall its petals on the table, a mask, cards, and 
trinkets lie scattered an the floor, a book of 
devotion is under the favourite’s hand, and on the 
base of a column are inscribed the words, Sic transit 
gloria muncli. The two children of the duchess are 
