JEAN-BAPTISTE OUDRY | A study of a hen

Acquis à Bordeaux, commerce d'art, 1971

Rennes, 2012, n°56 (notice par Hal Opperman) ;
Sceaux, 2013 (sans catalogue)

H. Opperman, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, New York/Londres, 1977, t.II, p.962, n°D 942A suppl., repr. p.1203, fig.428

Hinged to mount with tabs of japan paper. Sheet slightly faded with very light foxing and light water stain in lower right corner, but chalk extremely good and fresh. Sold unframed.
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Full of character and life, this dynamically drawn study of a hen is a fine and typical example of the drawings of birds and animals that form such a significant portion of Oudry’s drawn œuvre.  Firmly drawn in rich, black chalk, with deftly applied white chalk highlights, on the appealing blue paper that the artist so favoured, the hen seems to have been caught in the action of looking round at an unseen predator or rival.  Yet although these studies are so lively and animated, Hal Opperman and others have convincingly concluded that they were in general drawn not from life, but from prototypes in the paintings or even tapestries of other artists, pointing out that there are never any of the pentimenti that one would expect in rapidly executed studies made from fast-moving animals, nor, in the end, is the handling of the chalk spontaneous or rapid enough to suggest these drawings were made from life. In many cases, in fact, the motifs seen in Oudry’s animal studies have indeed been identified in earlier works, chiefly the many such studies and compositions by the Antwerp artists Pieter Boel and Nicasius Bernaerts (known as Nicasius), both of whom worked in the service of Louis XIV.  These artists’ works were kept together at the royal Gobelins tapestry manufactory until the Revolution, after which they were dispersed between various French museums.  The sketches and paintings by Nicasius in fact lost their rightful attribution at this time, and were until relatively recently given to Alexandre François Desportes, but the researches of Georges de Lastic re-established their correct authorship.¹   

A number of Oudry’s animal drawings can be traced to specific prototypes in the works of Nicasius, such as the fine drawing of an ostrich, in the Louvre², a study that is very close indeed in style and handling to the Adrien collection hen.  The ostrich is taken from a painting by Nicasius that is also in the Louvre.  The hen cannot, however, be found in exactly the same form in any known painting by Nicasius, and nor does it appear in any print, tapestry or porcelain decoration executed after designs by Oudry, so its place in Oudry’s work remains to some extent obscure.  One tantalising possibility has, however, been advanced by Opperman in his Rennes catalogue entry for this drawing.  Citing the observations of Vincent Delieuvin³, Opperman points out that Oudry is known to have made copies of paintings executed by Nicasius for the Ménagerie at Versailles, and that one of those paintings, a frieze of poultry painted for the salon octagonal, is now missing a portion to the left side, of which no visual record survives, which seems to have depicted numerous cocks and hens.    Opperman suggests that it is possible our hen was to be found in that lost section of Nicasius’s painting, while also acknowledging that we will probably never know for sure if this was indeed the case. 

Although Oudry seems always to have kept the great majority of his animal drawings in his own possession, presumably to serve him as a repertoire of motifs that could be included in his paintings and tapestry designs, his drawings of this type have always been greatly, and justly, admired both for their deep understanding of the animal world, and for their straightforward visual appeal.

^1.  G. de Lastic, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint et dessiné de François Desportes, Paris 1969

^2.  Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 14975

^3.  V. Delieuvin, ‘Le décor animalier de la Ménagerie de Versailles par Nicasius Bernaerts,’ Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de l’art français,’ 2008, pp. 47-80