The Crows
Emile Adélard Breton (1831 - 1902), 1870
oil on canvas, 56 cm x 86.5 cm
Credits: The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
Emile Breton painted many winter scenes. He most likely made this landscape in Courrières in Northern France, where he lived his entire life. He depicted a flock of crows converging from all directions on a dung cart. The birds descend like a whirlwind, introducing movement into the otherwise tranquil, snow-covered expanse.
Mesdag was fascinated by Breton’s work, which he knew from exhibitions in Paris. As a beginning artist, he himself made a few winter landscapes. Mesdag purchased two paintings by Breton and hung The Crows in his house at the Laan van Meerdervoort in The Hague.
- Object number
- hwm0057
- Dimensions
- 56 cm x 86.5 cm, 88.5 cm x 118 cm, 14 cm
- Provenance
- Sold by Goupil & Cie, The Hague (no. 7691, Les corbeaux) to Hendrik Willem Mesdag, The Hague for FRF 1200, 16 May 1873; Collection Museum Mesdag donated by Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten to the State of the Netherlands, 14 May 1903; Rijksmuseum H.W. Mesdag, The Hague, from 1 August 1903; in trust of the Mauritshuis, The Hague, between 1934 and 1990; in trust of the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, from 1 April 1990; Museum Mesdag, in trust of the Van Gogh Museum Foundation, Amsterdam, from 1 July 1994, under the name of De Mesdag Collectie from 2011.
- artist
- Emile Adélard Breton
- Credits
- The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Vive l'impressionisme! Topstukken uit Nederlandse collecties., 10 October 2024-26 January 2025
Arles, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Van Gogh. Coleurs du Nord, couleurs du Sud, 4 April-31 August 2014
Heugten, Sjraar van, Curiger, Bice, Clergue, Yolande, Van Gogh : colours of the north, colours of the south, Arles, 2014, p. 23, 25-27, 115
Heugten, Sjraar van, Curiger, Bice, Clergue, Yolande, Van Gogh : coulours du nord, coulours du sud, Arles, 2014, p. 23, 25-27, 115
Dijk, Maite van, Suijver, Renske, Fitski, M., Smits, C., De Mesdag Collectie, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 14, 25
Dijk, Maite van, Suijver, Renske, Fitski, M., Smits, C., The Mesdag Collection, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 14, 25
Vergeest, Aukje, The French collection : nineteenth-century French paintings in Dutch public collections, Amsterdam, 2000, p. 83-84
Leighton, John, Vincent van Gogh and his time. Four seasons from the Van Gogh Museum and the H.W. Mesdag Museum, Tokyo, 1997, p. 74-75, 141
Bodt, Saskia de, Leeman, Fred, Leeuw, Ronald de, Pennock, Hanna, Museum Mesdag : catalogue of paintings and drawings, Zwolle, 1996, p. 126, 206