Oil on canvas mounted on board, 1874, signed 'V C Thirion' and dated lower left.

52 x 37 1/2 in., 68 x 50 in. (frame).

Note: Thirion was an early student of William Bouguereau, one of the most successful artists of the nineteenth century whose Academic style and choice of subjects Thirion would follow throughout his career. Thirion established himself as a painter of genre subjects, primarily the idealised rustic peasant genre that became increasingly popular in the second half of the nineteenth century. Thirion painted intimate scenes of peasant life, but in contrast to his contemporaries, he painted them in the classical Salon style he inherited from Bouguereau. Paysanne de la Creuze is a fine example of this style. Imbued with sentiment, the subject is carefully observed in an intimate moment and rendered in a beautiful and delicate hand. 

Exhibited: Probably, Paris, Salon des Artistes Francais, 1874, no. 1709.

Literature: Probably, Emile Bellier de la Chavignerie, and Louis Auvray, Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de l'Ecole Francais, vol. 2, p. 565; Probably, Le Monde Illustré, Paris, 1874, vol. XXXV, p. 58; Probably, Nestor Paturot, Le Salon de 1874, Paris, 1874, p. 247-8; Descriptive Catalogue of the Art Gallery of the James Prendergast Library Association, 1906, no. 20 (as Industry and incorrectly attributed to Eugene Romain Thirion); Katherine E. Manthorne, The Mirror Up to Nature: A Catalogue of 19th and 20th Century Paintings in the Collection of the James Prendergast Library Association, 1982, p. 51 (as Industry and incorrectly attributed to Eugene Romain Thirion).