Limousin Bull, Antique French Cattle Print after Melin, 1873

This antique cattle print portrays a golden red Limousin bull after J. Melin, engraved by A. Riffaut and printed by Lemercier for the French agricultural album of the Vienna Exposition, 1873. The bull stands on high pasture with the hills of the Limousin behind.

The breed is now one of the best known beef cattle in the world, which gives an early portrait of it a wide appeal to breeders, farmers and collectors of animal art. It belongs to the run of French breed portraits after the leading animal painters of the day.

The sheet comes from the folio of maps, plans and drawings that the Direction de l'Agriculture of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce assembled for its own exhibit at the Exposition Universelle held in Vienna in 1873, printed in Paris by the Imprimerie Nationale. The album gathered the statistical cartography, the model state farms, the breed portraits and the prize silver by which France meant to present its agriculture to the world. Its thematic maps belong to the first generation of printed statistical mapping, a field now collected for the history of data visualisation quite as much as for the history of farming.

The print is an aquatint printed in color, issued in 1873. The color is printed rather than applied by hand. This antique cattle print would suit a farmhouse kitchen, a study or a country interior, and it will interest collectors of animal art, French cattle breeds and agricultural history alike.

The sheet is in good condition, with age toning, scattered foxing and light fading. A crease and minor staining are visible at the upper-right corner. The toning is the ordinary result of age rather than damage. Please see the images for a full view of the condition.

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