Not currently on display at the V&A

Snow scene: children leaving school

Oil Painting
1850s (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Benjamin Vautier (1829-1898) was born in Morges, near Lausanne. He first took drawing lessons from Jules Hébert (1812-1897) and subsequently became a pupil of Carl Ferdinand Sohn (1805-1867) and Rudolf Jordan (1810-1887) in Düsseldorf (1850-53). In 1857 he settled permanently in Düsseldorf and achieved a successful career.

This painting is a fine example of Vautier's genre scenes, a category he specialised exclusively. The present work shows a group of children after school and was probably executed based on some ethnographic studies Vautier brought back from the Bernese Oberland. By comparison with similar compositions, Vautier probably painted this composition in the 1850s. This type of sentimental and anecdotic genre scene was quite popular and attracted collectors during the second half of the 19th century.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSnow scene: children leaving school
Materials and techniques
Oil on canvas
Brief description
Oil painting, 'Snow Scene: Children Leaving School', Benjamin Vautier, Swiss school, 1850s
Physical description
A group of children leaving school under the attendance of a teacher standing on the top of the stairs in front of a school in a village covered with snow.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 47.6cm
  • Estimate width: 36.2cm
Dimensions taken from C.M. Kauffmann, Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973
Style
Marks and inscriptions
'B. VAUTIER' (Signed by the artist on stone, lower right)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend
Object history
Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868
Subjects depicted
Summary
Benjamin Vautier (1829-1898) was born in Morges, near Lausanne. He first took drawing lessons from Jules Hébert (1812-1897) and subsequently became a pupil of Carl Ferdinand Sohn (1805-1867) and Rudolf Jordan (1810-1887) in Düsseldorf (1850-53). In 1857 he settled permanently in Düsseldorf and achieved a successful career.

This painting is a fine example of Vautier's genre scenes, a category he specialised exclusively. The present work shows a group of children after school and was probably executed based on some ethnographic studies Vautier brought back from the Bernese Oberland. By comparison with similar compositions, Vautier probably painted this composition in the 1850s. This type of sentimental and anecdotic genre scene was quite popular and attracted collectors during the second half of the 19th century.
Bibliographic reference
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900 , London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 101, cat. no. 220.
Collection
Accession number
1604-1869

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Record createdApril 24, 2007
Record URL
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