The Meeting

Philippe Auguste Jeanron was a forerunner of the French realist movement. By the 1830s, he had begun depicting the kind of rural interactions we see in The Meeting. Here two men engage in serious conversation. The man on the left wears a smock and a broad-brimmed hat typical of the Limousin region, in south-central France. Resting slightly against a long staff, he looks toward the other man with concern. This second figure stands erect, arms crossed, face impassive. One suspects that the man on the left has troubles, perhaps an inability to pay rent, and the man on the right cannot or will not help.