“The perched house” Attributed to Jacques-Nicolas Julliard (1715-1790)

Jacques-Nicolas JULLIARD (1715-1790) Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 58 X 45 cm without frame and 70 X 57 cm with frame

In the foreground, a young woman milks her goats while a shepherd watches over his small flock. A beautiful, soft, and enveloping atmosphere of late autumn draws us in and draws our gaze toward this little house perched in the tree. The painter uses a monochrome palette for this unusual landscape but reserves the color, blue and red, for the figures. After training at the Royal Academy, Jacques-Nicolas Julliart became Boucher's student. It was with him that he was introduced to the decorative arts a few years later. He quickly specialized in landscape painting and left for Italy in 1749 where he produced the View of Frascati. Back in France, he worked for the Beauvais factory, painting preparatory cartoons for tapestries. His work earned him the appointment of Painter to the King of the Felletin and Aubusson factories. In 1759 he was admitted to the Royal Academy on presentation of "Landscape with Rising Sun", preserved in the Tours Museum. His paintings were very popular at the Salon between 1755 and 1785 and were highly sought after.