Troyon, and his cattle pictures show much the same method of treatment. There are examples in various American collections which are familiar in reproductions. Dupré, who also belongs in this company, sometimes painted animal subjects; and still another member of the nineteenth-century French group was Charles Jacque, whose specialty was sheep. Pictures of sheep are very pleasing to children, and two favorites of the schoolroom and nursery are Millet’s Shepherdess and LeRolle’s Shepherdess. The pig, though a familiar figure in nursery tales, is not often encountered in the polite society of art, but George Morland’s Midday Meal, in the Metropolitan Museum, is a pig picture worthy of admiration.
As I have referred frequently to Landseer, something should be said of the work of this famous animal painter. In the mid-nineteenth century he was the popular idol in England, admired equally at the court and among the common people. Engravings from his pictures carried his name and his art all around the world. Then came a reaction when critics began to scoff at his literary and anecdotic qualities, and compared him unfavorably with the new favorite, Rosa Bonheur. At the present time we can judge both painters mere fairly and see their respective excellences, It is true that Landseer emphasized a dog’s kinship with man rather than bis characteristic animal traits. Instead of showing the bloodhound in search of his prey, his nose to the trail, he represented the noble creature waiting outside his wounded master’s door in an agony of suspense. Instead of
