The sledge , 1830-1835

Oil on canvas

Signed lower left

Dimensions: 54 x 65 cm

Alexandre-Marie Colin paints with the Romantics. A pupil of Anne-Louis Girodet, he became a painter of history, genre, portraits and landscape. We know of a few lithographs and drawings. A great friend of Delacroix, a leading figure in French Romanticism, and of Richard Bonington, one of the most important English romantic painter of his time, Colin participated in the Paris Salons from 1819 until the end of his career. He was medalist and rewarded from 1824 to 1840, painted the decoration of the church of Saint-Roch in 1851 and was appointed professor of drawing at the Beaux-Arts de Nîmes at his maturity.  

Often, posterity has confused certain paintings of Delacroix with those of Colin. From the artist, we retain his portraits of the beautiful Parisian world, painters (for example, the Portrait of Géricault , 1924) and actors in stage costume. Otherwise, he painted landscapes of Italy and historical pictures of the struggle for the independence of Greece, inspired by the poetic masterpieces of Lord Byron.  

The painting presents a winter genre scene, with a careful and dynamic composition. At first glance, one is moved by the blanket of snow and the children's play; you could almost hear the muffled sound of their footsteps. The painter's invoice serves the solidity of the composition. The colorful cups have various patterns, the faces take on different expressions and the gestures echo each other like a perfect choreography. The painter details the group engaged in pulling the sled, the effort of each one is underlined by the ascending diagonal.  

At second glance, the game is detailed. The child sitting on the sled wears pretty shoes and a warm coat. Beside him an elegantly bundled up little girl looks at him and talks to him. Among the children who pull the improvised carriage, some have hooves on their feet and makeshift coats. Colin gives another tone to children's play, whose roles take up the rules of society and of their parents.