The Falconer

Artist Thomas Couture (French, 1815-1879)

Place of OriginFrance

Dateprobably 1846

DimensionsH: 51 in. (129.5 cm); W: 38 1/2 in. (97.7 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1954.78

Not on View

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.Published References

Gautier, T., Les Beaux-Arts en Europe - 1855, Paris, 1855, I, p. 282.

de la Rochenoire, J., Le Salon de 1855, Paris, 1855, p. 77.

About, E., Voyage à travers l'exposition des beaux-arts (peintre et sculpture), Paris, 1855, p. 190.

du Camp, M., Les beaux-arts à l'exposition universelle de 1855, peinture-sculpture, Paris, 1855, p. 187.

Müntz, E., "Exposition Internationale de Munich," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, II, 1869, p. 307.

Ménard, R., "Exposition Internationale de Londres," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, IV, 1871, p. 438.

Biller, C., "Zur Erinnerung an Thomas Couture," Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, XVI, 1881, p. 106, repr. p. 102.

Clement, C., and L. Hutton, Artists of the 19th Century, Boston, 1884, I, p. 166.

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Cook, Clarence, Art and Artists of Our Time, New York, 1888, vol. I, pp. 187, 190 (as Page with a Falcon).

Boetticher, F. von, Malerwerke des Jahrhunderts 19, 1891, p. 192.

Muther, Richard, History of Modern Painting, London, 1895, vol. 1, p. 406.

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Errera, Isabella, Répertoire des Peintures Datéés, Bruxelles, Paris, 1920, p. 682.

Sport Im Bied, no. 21, 1927, color repr.

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Bertauts-Couture, G., Thomas Couture, Paris, 1932, pp. x, xi, 34-35, 100, 154, repr. opp. p. 25 (incorrectly as in Berlin Museum).

Sutton, Denys, "Nineteenth-century painting, trends and cross-currents," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 493, repr. (b&w) fig. 20, p. 492.

de Leiris, A., "Thomas Couture the Painter," Thomas Couture Paintings and Drawings in American Collections (exh. cat.), College Park, University of Maryland, 1970, pp. 21-22, fig. 5.

"Triomphe des dessins de Thomas Couture," Plaisir de France, no. 385, Jan. 1971, p. 63.

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Webster, Sally, William Morris Hunt, Cambridge, England, 1991, pp. 12-15, fig. 3.

Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France 1865-1915, Evanston, IL, 1992, p. 22, fig. 8.

La chasse au vol au fil des temps, Gien, 1994, repr. p. 84.

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Cuno, James and Joachim Kaak, eds., Manet: Face to Face, Munich, Pinakoteck-DuMont, 2004, p. 120, 123, repr. p. 122 (col.).

Ottinger, Bénédicte, "Thomas Couture et l'Amérique," 48/18: La Revue du Musee d'Orsay, no. 26, Spring 2008, p. 31, 33, 34, 39, n. 17, fig. 4, p. 30 (col.).

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Kaak, Joachim, Zeitgenossenschaft zur Malerei Edouard Manets, Munich, Sievekind Verlag, 2014, p. 55, repr. (col.) p. 54.

Exhibition History

Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1855, no. 2820.

Munich, Glaspalast, Internationale Kunstaustellung, 1869, no. 1194.

Dresden, Grosse Kunstaustellung, 1912.

Berlin, Thannhauser, Grande exposition de chefs d'oeuvre de l'art français, 1927, no. 56.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Past Rediscovered: French Painting 1800-1900, 1969, no. 19.