Émile van Marcke

1827-1890 French

Idyllic Barbizon cattle painter

Émile van Marcke , born Charles Émile van Marcke de Lummen, was a French cattle painter. He studied under Troyon at Barbizon. He received the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1872 and a gold medal at the Paris exhibition. He is represented at the Louvre and other museums of France , and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, and in other public and private collections in the United States . Typical of his work is the public domain image Summer Pastoral, Bresle Valleyon this page reproduced courtesy of the Morton Collection. This gem-like work offers the favorite themes of van Marcke in a microcosm; it incorporates cattle, water, reflections, dramatic cloudscapes and a feeling of life and motion and verdant nature. Nature is idyllic and animals emblematic of that harmony.