Les enfants au faucon

Two children play with a falcon, the hooded bird of the hunt held up between them in a glade of the forest of Fontainebleau — a subject that let Narcisse Diaz de la Peña, the great colorist of the Barbizon school, set the richness of his palette against the deep greens of the woods. Born of Spanish parents, Diaz came to painting through a porcelain factory and found his true voice in the intimate forest idylls that made his fortune; the children’s fauconnerie here carries the touch of fantasy that distinguishes his figure pieces. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris.