Hippolyte Boulenger – Sheep at the Edge of the Wood, 1864

by Atelier Liesjes

A flock of sheep stands at the edge of a wood, bathed in the warm light of a late afternoon. In the foreground on the left stands a ewe with her lamb; she has raised her head and is looking at something outside the frame, as if she can hear something. In the centre, a sheep grazes with its head buried deep in the grass; on the right, another animal walks away from the group with its head hanging low; and at the back, another sheep stands in the shade. On the left, the trunk of an old, hollow tree dominates the scene; on the right, a leaning trunk grows amongst the foliage. A pale blue-green patch of sky is visible through the treetops.
Boulenger did not paint the animals as isolated figures in a setting, but as part of the landscape: their woolly bodies have the same colour and texture as the grass and moss, and their movements follow the direction of the light. The paint is fluid and loose, with short strokes in the fleeces and longer strokes in the foliage. The moment is captured perfectly – the end of the day, when the herd pauses for a moment before moving on.
The colours are those of late summer: moss green, ochre, burnt sienna, cream and warm brown, with a golden glow in the clearing in the centre. The style is realism in the tradition of the School of Tervuren and the School of Barbizon: painted from life, without romantic embellishment, but with a keen sense of atmosphere.
Hippolyte Boulenger (Tournai 1837 – Brussels 1874) was a Belgian landscape painter and the leading figure of the School of Tervuren, which brought the plein air realism of Barbizon to Belgium. His work is considered to be part of the Pre-Impressionist movement. A tranquil, warm animal landscape for lovers of nineteenth-century painting, the countryside and sheep.