The Falconer
Artist: Thomas Couture (French, 1815-1879)
Date: probably 1846
Dimensions:
H: 51 in. (129.5 cm); W: 38 1/2 in. (97.7 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1954.78
Label Text:“This painting of my youth is considered, perhaps rightly, as my best picture,” declared Thomas Couture in 1876. Contemporary admirers praised The Falconer’s “vivacious” and “velvety” colors, its design, and the contrast in execution between the figure and the background.
The subject reflects the 19th-century revival of interest in romantic subjects from the Gothic age of chivalry and pageantry. Dressed in striped tights and belted velvet doublet, the youth ascends the marble stairs of a grand terrace while taunting a falcon, which flaps its wings and snaps its beak in response. Falconry was associated with medieval knights and courtiers and remained a sport of the aristocracy even into the 19th century.
Couture was an important teacher to a number of forward-looking artists in the mid-1800s. Édouard Manet, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and Henri Fantin-Latour (all in the Museum’s collections) were among his most innovative students.
The subject reflects the 19th-century revival of interest in romantic subjects from the Gothic age of chivalry and pageantry. Dressed in striped tights and belted velvet doublet, the youth ascends the marble stairs of a grand terrace while taunting a falcon, which flaps its wings and snaps its beak in response. Falconry was associated with medieval knights and courtiers and remained a sport of the aristocracy even into the 19th century.
Couture was an important teacher to a number of forward-looking artists in the mid-1800s. Édouard Manet, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and Henri Fantin-Latour (all in the Museum’s collections) were among his most innovative students.
Not on view
In Collection(s)