Garonnais Oxen, French Cattle Breed, Antique Chromolithograph by Borie, 1863

An original antique chromolithograph, printed in color, lettered "RACE GARONNAISE, BŒUFS." and published in Paris about 1863 in Victor Borie's Animaux de la Ferme, Espèce Bovine. A pair of brown oxen stand side by side in profile facing left, joined by a padded yoke strapped across their brows and lashed around their horns. The nearer ox hides most of its partner, and its tail is flicked up over its back. Both have pink muzzles and pale lower legs, and they stand on a sandy ground with a gray shadow.

The sheet is headed "ANIMAUX DE LA FERME, ESPÈCE BOVINE" (Farm Animals, Cattle), with the imprint "Lib. Agricole de la Maison Rustique, rue Jacob, 26, à Paris." at upper left and "par Victor Borie." at upper right. The caption below the image translates as "Garonne breed, oxen", and the printer's line "Imp. Zanote, rue des Boulangers, 13, Paris." runs at lower left. At lower right, below the border, the artist is credited as "O. de Penne del", the Latin delineavit meaning "drew it", which names the French animal painter Olivier de Penne (Charles Olivier de Penne, 1831 to 1897). The drawing is also signed in the stone with the artist's script signature at lower left.

The plate shows the wheaten cattle of the Garonne valley in southwestern France, used for heavy work. Borie's album is a survey in colored portraits of the cattle breeds of France, together with British and other foreign breeds, issued in Paris by the Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique of 26 rue Jacob, a publisher of books on farming and rural life. Each animal is drawn broadside against a plain ground, the convention of the livestock portrait, so that the build, coat and horns of the breed can be read and compared from plate to plate.

The plate looks well in a narrow wooden frame, and several breeds from the series can be grouped in a row for a farmhouse kitchen or a study.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.