THEODORE JOURDAN (Salon-de-Provence 1833-1908 Marseilles)

Born in Provence, Jourdan studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseilles before joining the fellow provençal artist Émile Loubon in Paris. This portrait of a griffon differs from the views of Southern France for which Jourdan is best known, even if animals such as sheep occasionally appear in his works (Marseilles, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 492, 774, 1662).