De Percheron [Pl. 4]

Book Description

[Antwerp: Zutphen, Schillemans & Van Belkum, 1907]. Colour-printed lithograph by J.L. Goffart, after a painting by Otto Eerelman on heavy textured card. Very good condition apart from some minor chipping at the extreme edges and a small crease in the top left-hand corner. 17 3/8 x 23 1/8 inches. A rare and finely rendered portrait of a noble draft horse, from the limited Dutch edition of Eerelman's 'Paardenrassen Kunstalbum'. First bred in the Le Perche region near Normandy, France, the Percheron is a well-known breed of ambiguous origin. As early as the Middle Ages, it was prized for its beauty and robustness, and by the seventeenth century, it attained widespread popularity. Beginning in 1839, the breed was heavily imported to the United States until World War II, at which time it became virtually extinct with the introduction of the widely used farm tractor. However, with the resurgent popularity of the draft horse in the 1960s, the Percheron is once again a prolific breed in America. A skilled draftsman, watercolourist, and painter, Otto Eerelman was born in the Netherlandish village of Groningen in 1839, where he studied with the Dutch history painter J.H. Egenberger at the Minerva Academy. He later studied in Paris in 1867 and in Brussels from 1874 to 1876. After living in The Hague and Arnhem for several years, he returned to his hometown, where he became an instructor at the Minerva Academy. Although widely reputed for his paintings of the royal family, particularly Queen Wilhelmina, Eerelman was primarily known for his detailed renderings of horses. In 1907, Zutphen, Schillemans & Van Belkum published a Dutch edition of Paardenrassen Kunstalbum, a portfolio of chromolithographed plates based on paintings by Eerelman, which depict different breeds of draft horses. Mennessier de la Lance, Essai de bibliographie hippique donnant la description détaillée des ouvrages publiés ou traduits en latin et en français sur le cheval et la cavalerie, avec de nombreuses biographies d'auteurs hippiques, p. 667.

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