Louis (or Antoine) Le Nain - Peasant Family in an Interior

Louis (or Antoine) Le Nain
Peasant Family in an Interior
ca. 1642
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

A Family Portrait

The three Le Nain brothers, Antoine, Louis and Mathieu, worked in collaboration.  This is why there is often difficulty knowing who painted which picture.  The present work, widely attributed to Louis, depicts mealtime in a peasant household.  The entire family is gathered – grandmother, husband, wife, six children of various ages, a cat and a dog.  Father has a notably coarse appearance, with hat on head and ragged clothing.  He sits at a table covered with a rough, wrinkled cloth and occupies himself cutting bread.  Along with him, his wife, her mother, and the little boy sitting on the ground stare directly at the painter (and at the viewer).  By contrast, the other children look elsewhere.     

Elegance and Indigence

The representation of the grandmother is especially affecting: she holds an earthenware jug, resting it on her upper leg, and in her left hand has a glass half full of wine, no doubt poured from the jug.  The manner in which she holds the glass is remarkable.  In our day, we would be most likely to grasp it toward the top, by the bowl, while we see her here holding it by the stem, as we see also in numberless other canvases of this period.  There is a carefulness in this deportment, an almost aristocratic finesse, that communicates the preciousness of the glass's contents.  Such delicacy demonstrates that these rustic beings are not wanting in all refinement.  Behind this peasant ambiance, this life of struggle, we are given to understand that there exists a genuine interior reality.  These peasants emerge from mere misfortune by means of details such as the glass of wine and the flute.

The Music of the World

The flute-playing boy has bare feet and is poorly dressed.  In the ancient Greek novel Daphnis and Chloe, there is a musical contest between goat-tenders and sheep-herders.  The former play pan-pipes, while the latter play flutes with a single straight tube like the one in the picture.  Both groups pipe to their flocks, issuing musical commands which the animals obey.  The flute, and by extension music itself, is a means of mastery over nature.  The goat-tenders and sheep-herders need no words to make their wishes known to their beasts.  Musical signals are sufficient.  The boy in the painting is playing for his own pleasure, and for those around him – perhaps this should also be seen as a gesture toward controlling his own world, despite everything.   

Fire and Light

Behind the grandmother, three children are gathered near the hearth.  We notice a beautiful girl in profile, her scarf illuminated by the fire.  Viewed from the back is a boy whose legs are detached in silhouette from the shadows, and finally, another boy, seated and facing the girl.  These three in their dim recess seem lost in dreams, bathed in a tender glow.  There must also be a window on the right admitting light, unless it is the dwelling's only door left open.   

This is an interval of rest for the family, a moment of calm, even of contemplation, with their gazes full of something almost like gratitude for the painter who has chosen to level his attention on them.   

A Distributed Still Life

The dog and cat are quiet, posed in much the same way as other domestic utensils: tongs to manage the fire, an earthenware pot on the floor, a ladle, a basket with a napkin hanging over the edge.  United and assembled on the table, these objects would readily transform into a proper still life à la Chardin, but here, as soon as this moment of leisure has passed, as soon as the itinerant painter has gone on his way, they will be called back into active use.  

– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)