Charles-Laurent Maréchal (1865-1931) French, Pair of Oil Paintings. Farmyard Scenes of Chickens, Oils on Canvas. Both signed bottom right. Tag with framing information on reverse of #2807. 

Overall (Both): 15 3/4 X 17 3/4 in. 

Sight (Both): 9 1/2 X 11 1/2 in. 

#2806, #2807 . 

Charles-Laurent Maréchal was born to poor parents in Metz, France in January 1801. He was brought up as a saddler, but his love for art led him to Paris, where he became a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault. In 1825 he returned to Metz, exhibiting at the Exposition of the Department of the Moselle where he won the first-class silver medal for his painting “Job.” In 1831, when King Louis Philippe I visited Metz, he gifted him a painting entitled “Prayer,” which had won an Honorable Mention at the Salon that same year. Amongst his remaining paintings in oil are “Masaccio As a Boy,” “The Harvest,” and the “Apotheosis of St. Catherine” painted in 1842 for the Metz Cathedral. He eventually abandoned oil as a vehicle in favor of pastels, which he felt were better for his free, fast, and sketchy style. He produced a vast number of Bohemian subjects, such as “Sisters of Misery” and “Hungarian Woodcutters.” He then established a new industry in Metz dedicated to glass painting, earning first class medals in the Great Exhibition of 1851. His two vast hemicycles, which he created for the Palace of Industry of Paris in 1855, earned him the rank of officer of the Legion of Honour. The remainder of his life was spent crafting many painted glass images for the principal churches in France, St. Vincent de Paul and Notre Dame being the most famous. Maréchal died in Bar-le-Duc in 1887.