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River Landscape by Alexandre-François Desportes

Alexandre-François Desportes · 1714-01-01

Alexandre-François Desportes made his career painting the spoils of the royal hunt, dead game, living hounds, and the French kings who posed among them. But this 1714 canvas, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, contains no animals at all.

Look at the composition. A single tall tree anchors the center, the river draws your eye deep into the distance, and the fallen log in the foreground pushes you into the scene. Everything is arranged to direct attention toward the middle ground. That empty space is not an accident. In Desportes' animal paintings, that is exactly where the quarry stands.

Desportes carried a small notebook on the royal hunts, sketching the terrain on-site so he could later insert the dogs and the game chosen by the king. These pure landscapes were his working capital, stage sets built from real observation, ready for the actors when a commission arrived. The path worn into the lower-left corner proves he was not painting a fantasy wilderness; this is a place people walked, and hunted, repeatedly.

Most of those finished hunting scenes hang in the Louvre and Versailles. This quiet study stayed in his studio until it entered the Met's collection, a rare glimpse of the preparation behind the spectacle.

Details

Louis XIV and Louis XV both paid him to paint their dogs.
Louis XIV and Louis XV both paid him to paint their dogs.
So why does this landscape have no animals at all?
So why does this landscape have no animals at all?
Because before he painted the prize hounds, he painted the ground they stood on.
Because before he painted the prize hounds, he painted the ground they stood on.
This is a study. A stage, waiting for its actors.
This is a study. A stage, waiting for its actors.
The river draws your eye exactly where the quarry would emerge.
The river draws your eye exactly where the quarry would emerge.
Transcript

He was the painter of the royal hunt. Louis XIV and Louis XV both paid him to paint their dogs. So why does this landscape have no animals at all? Because before he painted the prize hounds, he painted the ground they stood on. This is a study. A stage, waiting for its actors. The river draws your eye exactly where the quarry would emerge. Desportes walked the royal forests with a notebook, setting the scene before the kill.