Jean Louis Gintrac-Jouasset
Bordeaux 1808 – 1886
A Hut in a Plain Landscape
Oil on paper laid down on board.
Framing lines with beige oil painting. Inscribed Jean Louis Gintrac with pencil on the sheet of paper laid down on the back.
165 x 316 mm – 6 1/2 x 12 7/16 in.
Originally from Bordeaux, Gintrac studied in Paris with Guillaume Guillon Lethière (1760 – 1832) and at the École des Beaux-Arts. In spite of his academical training, he demonstrated throughout his career a particular taste for genre and landscape painting. He practiced plein-air painting in the forest of Fontainebleau. The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux acquired in the 1830s a few paintings dating from the early years of his career. An esteemed drawing teacher, Gintrac was also supported by important families in Bordeaux from whom he received frequent commissions. He also participated in illustration projects and regularly exhibited at the Paris and Bordeaux Salons. Gintrac executed several views of landscape or architecture around Bordeaux but also in the South of France, on his way to Italy where he travelled in 1845-1846.
In this small plein air study, the artist shows a particular interest in the picturesque thatched hut, traditional dwelling of the Landes shepherds. It is a preparatory study for his painting The Landes Shepherds, acquired by the Bordeaux museum in 1830 and maybe also exhibited at the Salon in 1834. The painting shows the shepherds on their stilts with their characteristic dwelling on the left side of the composition.
