Oil painting, 'Children Playing with a Lamb', Barthélémy Menn, Swiss school, ca. 1840

Two women and two young boys playing with a lamb in a wide landscape with trees on the left background.

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend

Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, listed in the 1868 post-mortem register of the contents of his villa in Lausanne (V&A R/F MA/1/T1181) as 'Oil on millboard. Children playing with a Lamb. By B. Menn. In frame. Signed. Swiss. Present century'; bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868.

Historical significance: The subject matter and compositional formula are reminiscent of religious compositions including the Virgin Mary, her mother Anne, the Christ Child and the Infant St John the Baptist, whose traditional attribute is a lamb. Although quite classical in spirit, the present composition shows a vivid interest in the depiction of nature in a broader manner.
The present painting is one of a group of 6 works by Menn, originally owned by the Rev. Townshend who gathered a rich collection of 19th-century landscape paintings. It is possible that Townshend acquired directly the painting from the artist as he had the habit of spending the winter in Lausanne, not far from Geneva.

Barthélemy Menn (1815-1893) was born in Geneva where he was taught by W. A. Töpffer and subsequently by Léonard Lugardon (1801-1884), a former pupil of Ingres and jean-Antoine Gros. Menn later studied with Ingres and followed him in Rome. He mostly produced portraits and landscapes close to the school of Barbizon although he made his debut with historical subjects. Menn taught two generations of painters including Maurice Dudevant, Georges Sand's son, and Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918).

This painting is a fine example of Menn's transitional manner when he took his distance with history painting under the influence of Ingres and was attracted by a freer approach of nature developed by Corot and the school of Barbizon. It shows two women and two children playing with a lamb, which may be understood as a vernacular interpretation of the traditional image of Mary and Anne with the Infants Jesus and St John the Baptist.

1598-1869