Jules Bahieu (Dour, 1860 - ?)

Intérieur de Poulailles

Oil on canvas

Size: 54cm x 65cm (canvas); 69cm x 79cm (frame)

Signed

This romanticised genre painting has a great deal of charm. The chickens fill the canvas on multiple vertical levels, climbing up and jumping down the stone and wooden platforms as if on a carefully plotted theatre stage. These chicken-actors congregate in curious groups, bumbling about their business and chirp-chatting in a veritable fowlopolis. 

But even more amazing is how Bahieu captures the rustic nostalgia of the farm grange: through the textures of his paint. To replicate the old, mud-brick walls, dilapidated over decades of weathering and usage, Bahieu lathers the wet paint thickly onto the canvas. This impasto layer then dries unevenly; as the canvas ages, it is the natural craquelure in the paint that enhances the crumbling texture of the wall. When it comes to the picture’s main actors (our chickens), Bahieu employs deft, swift strokes. The individual feathers move with a composite dynamism that breathes life and energy into these birds; Bahieu’s expertise in drawing fowl shines through. Finally, most astonishing is how the artist renders the straw: thick drops of paint flicked off the brush! These strings of golden paint cover the canvas in erratic splays. Bahieu’s surprisingly modern technique evokes a bed of straw that feels both thick and brittle, random and pervasive. Almost like the splashes of paint in a Pollock painting! 

That atmosphere of romanticised, rural life typical of academic genre painting is here amplified by a playful diversity. The birds, the walls, the straw are all painted very differently, yet masterfully come together to give a sense of dynamic space and texture.