attr. Moreau. (Netting birds) Watercolor, gouache and pencil. c. 1880. $1,250.00

(Netting birds in a landscape)

Tall trees frame this bucolic scene of a fashionably dressed man and woman capturing doves in a large tethered net near a winding river.  A pair of dogs accompany them and a man, possibly their servant, stands beside his donkey.

Louis-Gabriel Moreau (1740-1806) is a highly regarded French artist best known for his watercolor and gouache paintings usually executed in a clear bright palette and a spontaneity of style. He is also referred to as "Louis Moreau Aine" or simply "Moreau Aine" to distinguish his work from that of his brother Jean-Michel who was an engraver and draughtsman. Louis-Gabriel Moreau studied under Pierre-Antoine de Machy, a painter who specialized in views of Paris, landscapes and depictions of ruins and these subjects appeared in Moreau's work throughout his career. He was named painter to the Comte d'Artois, the younger brother of Louis XVI who became Charles X, and thus was given lodgings in the Louvre. His first exhibitions were at the Exposition de la Jeunesse in 1960 and 1761 and he exhibited in the open Salons at the Louvre from 1791 to 1804.

Major United States institutions containing Works by Louis-Gabriel Moreau include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Samuel Kress Collection of The National Gallery of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

16 x 12 1/2 inches, sight with margin.
Watercolor with gouache and pencil.
Excellent condition.