French Peasants finding their Stolen Child, 1859. Oil on canvas; 16 ¾ x 13 inches (42.5 x 33 cm). Private collection. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Perhaps following up on the success of The Goaler's Daughter, Calderon chose to exhibit another genre painting with a French subject at the Royal Academy in 1859, no. 634. The painting shows a young French couple recovering their daughter who has been kidnapped and forced to act as a performer at a country fair. Their young daughter, dressed in a white dress, clutches at a tambourine she was using in her performance. A French gendarme clutches at an elderly woman who has been playing panpipes and who was obviously involved in the girl's abduction.
The reviewer of The Athenaeum felt that this painting gave Calderon first place amongst the younger artists exhibiting that year:
"Mr. Calderon stands this year first among the younger men – quite first. His French Peasants finding their Stolen Child (634) acting at a country fair, is admirable, both in plan and execution. Its completeness within itself is a lesson to the herd of men who paint mere unintelligible historical anecdotes. The painting is as strong and manly as the thought, with its strong national colouring and its simple and pure pathos. The enraptured mother, – the half-frightened child, – the crowing father, – the indignant hard-featured show-women who stand on her right, – the arbitrating gendarme, – the alarmed clown, with the immense green spectacles, peeping behind the curtain, are finely conceived. Perhaps it would have been better for a few spectators' faces, indignant, or sympathizing, about to pelt the show lamps, or express some tumultuous verdict. The solitude of the scene, and its separation from the outside world, intensifies the story, but narrows the circle of its interests. This is a strongly thought-out, strongly painted picture, and gives great hopes of the artist. We must, in conclusion, praise the detail of the string of coloured lampions, the glimpse of all the fun of the fair, the stage finery the mother treads underfoot, the father's rough scooped-out sabots lined with straw, and especially the child's finery and puffy white "phenomenon" frock. [618]
A critic for The Art Journal described the gist of the story: "No. 634. French Peasants finding their Stolen Child, P. H. Calderon. The scene here is the stage of a company of saltimbanques at a country fair, and there, supported by a police functionary, they claim their daughter, who is dressed in tawdry rags as a performer. All the figures have been very carefully wrought, and the supplementary circumstance assists the story" (171).
Bibliography
"Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 1645 (May 7, 1859): 617-18.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Art Journal New Series V (June 1, 1859): 161-172.
Created 14 July 2023