Henri Poterlet (1804-1835): Domestic Interior with Dog

A sweet and intimate family scene by the rarest of artists: French early 19th Century child prodigy Henri-Louis-Hippolyte Poterlet (1804-1835).

Poterlet was a close friend and confidante of Eugene Delacroix, the leader of the French Romantic school movement.  He met Delacroix when he was just 14 years old, and copying old master paintings in the Louvre - one of the best ways for a young artist to study colour and composition. 
Held in great esteem by Delacroix, the two artists would discuss and constructively criticise each others artworks and works in progress. 

In 1825, Poterlet travelled to England with Delacroix, where he met Wilkie, Lawrence, Fielding, Copley, Etty et Bonington. In 1827, he travelled to the Netherlands, to copy and study the Dutch Masters such as Rubens and Rembrandt ) - Delacroix qualified one of these copies "a true masterpiece".
Poterlet exhibited at the Salon of 1827, 1831 and 1833. He met an untimely demise of tubercolosis in 1835, aged only 31 years old. 

Our wonderful and rare painting dates from the 1820s and is signed at the lower right. The size of the canvas is 15 by 17 inches (38 x 43 cm)