Artwork
Horses
Horses is an oil painting by the Romanticist artist Rene Pierre Charles Princeteau. It dates from 1879 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:center left: Princeteau
About this work
Overview
The work is significant as an example of Princeteau's equestrian focus and is cataloged as number 23 in the 1994 catalogue raisonne by Robert and Manuel Schmit.
Horses is an oil on canvas painting by the French artist Rene Pierre Charles Princeteau. Measuring 45.7 by 54.6 centimeters, the artwork depicts two saddled horses within a dimly lit stable interior. The painting is signed by the artist and is currently held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., under the accession number 1985.64.34. The work is significant as an example of Princeteau's equestrian focus and is cataloged as number 23 in the 1994 catalogue raisonne by Robert and Manuel Schmit.
Technique & Style
Princeteau employed oil paint on canvas to render the scene, utilizing a palette dominated by earthy browns, russet reds, black, and cream. Light enters from the left, illuminating the flanks of the horses and casting deep shadows beneath them, which enhances the volume and physical presence of the animals. The brushwork varies across the composition, featuring loose and energetic strokes with thick impasto to define the ground and foreground straw, while the bodies of the horses are handled with smoother application. The painting surface exhibits visible craquelure. The signature is rendered in light script in the lower left, which corresponds to the center left inscription noted in museum records.
History & Provenance
The early provenance of the painting traces to a collection in Deslandes, Gironde. It subsequently passed through the art dealers Sloan and Roman in New York. In September 1968, the painting was acquired by Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., who then sold it in April 1969 to the prominent collector Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. Mellon held the work for over a decade before gifting it to the National Gallery of Art in 1985. Following its entry into the museum collection, the painting was placed on extended loan to the United States Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., where it was displayed in the offices of several Secretaries, including Samuel Skinner, Andrew H. Card, Federico Pena, and Rodney Slater, spanning from 1989 to 2001. It was also exhibited in 1968 at the Hirschl and Adler Galleries in New York for the Collectors' Finds exhibition.
Context
Rene Pierre Charles Princeteau, who lived from 1843 to 1914, was a French painter recognized for his equestrian subjects, a focus documented in the 1994 catalogue raisonne titled Chevaux et cavaliers. The painting fits within his broader oeuvre of horse and rider scenes, a theme also explored in his other works such as Race Horses on the Beach from around 1892. The 1968 exhibition at Hirschl and Adler highlighted the work among other collector acquisitions, and the subsequent cataloging by Robert and Manuel Schmit in 1994 solidified its place within the scholarly understanding of Princeteau's output.
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