Lot 46: Market day

Adolphe Charles Marais (French, 1856-1940)
Market day
signed 'Ad Marais' (lower left)
oil on canvas
42 1/8 x 53¾ in. (107.1 x 136.7 cm.)

Animals play a central role in the oeuvre of the artist Adolphe Marais, who depicts cattle and sheep with fluid brushstrokes and thick paint.
A pupil of Narcisse Berchére and Georges Busson, Marais exhibited at the Salon frequently. He spent two years in Arundel, Sussex from 1879 to 1881. After 1890 he rarely left the valleys of Touques and d'Auge, near his birthplace of Honfleur, and dedicated himself to paint the landscape and peasant life of the area.
Marais' pictures hang in museums in Honfleur, Rouen, Calais, Reims and Arras.