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| Title | Cockerel with Two Ducks | |
| Alternative Title | A Cock with Two Ducks; Coq, et canards | |
| Collection | Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle | |
| Artist | Couturier, Philibert Leon (French painter, 1823-1901) | |
| Date Earliest | possibly about 1845 | |
| Date Latest | about 1874 | |
| Signed | yes | |
| Description | Couturier was a painter of animals, birds and farmyard scenes; the Bowes Museum owns five works by the artist representing poultry yards. Here two ducks are shown enjoying a pool of water, whilst a cockerel attempts to drink from it. It is a very lively, realistic scene, bathed in a warm light which could be that of a summer morning. Benezit notes that Couturier's skilful drawing gives character to his depictions of farmyard animals. He may have been influenced in his choice of subject by seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch depictions of farmyard animals, such as those by Hondecoeter. | |
| Current Accession Number | B.M.673 | |
| Former Accession Number | No. 46m | |
| Inscription | front lr 'PL. Couturier' | |
| Subject | animal (cockerel, ducks) | |
| Measurements | 16 x 21.5 cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on panel | |
| Acquisition Details | Bequeathed by the founders John and Joséphine Bowes 1885. | |
| Publications | Ling, R., Studia Pompeiana & Classica In honor of Wilhelmina F. Jashemski, Volume II: Classica, New York. | |
| Notes | This is no. 46m in the 1877 MSS List. It is no. 46 in Joséphine Bowes's list of artists living in 1866, under the title Coq, et canards. She gives it a value of 130 francs. A couple of seventeenth-century artists were particularly interested in farmyard animals: Nicasius Bernaerts (Flemish, seventeenth century), Melchior de Hondecoeter (Dutch, seventeenth century). The approximate dates given to this painting correspond to Couturier's first Salon exhibition (1845), and to the date when John Bowes virtually stopped collecting. | |
| Rights Owner | The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham | |
| Author | Dr Maylis Hopewell-Curie | |