"Dog Guarding Rooster and Chickens" 
Eugène Rémy Maes (Belgian, 1849-1931)
Oil on canvas laid down on wood 
Signed and dated “E.R. Maes 1928” 
28 1/3 x 47 2/3 (43 x 60 1/2 x 5 1/4 frame) inches

Provenance: Painting was purchased directly from Eugène Rémy Maes's son, Paul Maes, in 1931/32 and had remained in the family ever since.
 
A detailed and richly studied painting of a breed of shepherd keeping watch over a flock of chickens in a barn.
 
Eugène Rémy Maes stood out from his contemporaries by sheer quality of work, his inordinate attention to detail bringing scenes fully to life: his ability to capture feathers, hair, translucent straw and shadows with utmost accuracy make his works superior. Critics and collectors highly praised Maes for his sensitive, hyper-realistic rendering of animal fur and bird plumage, as well as his ability to capture natural afternoon light shifting over rural textures. It is no surprise that Maes was a highly sought after artist he was highly collected. This is especially true in the States where he had avid and devoted following. 
 
He was a student at the Brussels Academy and became a painter of portraits, genre scenes and representations of animals. Animal representations include sheep, cattle, small livestock but especially poultry such as chickens and cats, dogs. For some paintings he worked with genre painters such as David Col, Gerard Portielje and Jan Portielje. He marketed a large part of his production through the art dealers Albert D'Huyvetter and his son Albert junior. Maes sometimes used the pseudonyms Ermaes and Théo Van Sluys. The latter would have been the name of a family member.

Maes belonged to the tradition of 19th-century European realism and followed in the footsteps of the celebrated Belgian cattle painter Eugène Verboeckhoven.