Superb French Mechanical Musical Tableau with Clock by Tharin

Live Auction

37" (94 cm.) w. x 32"h. x 9" d. A fine oil painting with rich vivid colors depicting a bustling village blacksmith shop is set within a gilded gesso-over-wooden frame with scroll and foliage decorations. The blacksmith shop is seen from the inside, looking over the workings of the shop and out through a wide arched open door into the town with winding narrow streets, mountains and blue sky in the background. There is a working porcelain-face clock signed Tharins a Paris, in the village tower; the clock has silk thread suspension pendulum that strikes the hours and half-hours. There are six people, a horse and a dog in the highly animated scene that includes motions of the bellows, the workers, the horse being shod, and the wagging tail of the dog; the lighting of the painting highlights these movements. Two musical tunes play. Excellent condition, beautifully preserved. French, Tharins of Paris, an outstanding tableau whose fine painting is enlivened by the five movements and two melodious tunes.