This compelling early 18th-century oil painting by French artist Michel Landois (c.1660s-1726) depicts a stagecoach robbery by brigands. It's shown at a critical point - a moment of decision.
A woman, plainly dressed, split vegetables scattered by her feet, is pleading with a brigand. All around, the bodies of fellow travellers lay robbed and brutalised. A child stands nervously behind her. What will become of them? Murder or mercy?
Intriguingly, the brigand’s pistol is angled away.
Landois has composed this moral dilemma intelligently, with the landscape itself heightening the tension. To the right, the point of ambush; to the left, the road leading onward. The viewer stands, as it were, at the crossroads of action.
With this in mind, the sense of an interruption along a route from one destination to another becomes more than just theatre. It implies that the actions of those we meet along life's narrow pathway can have implications for both our own generation and those of the next.
Such staging reflects the intellectual climate of early 18th-century France, where ideas of 'action' and 'attitude' in art were closely tied to psychology. The figures are arranged in deliberate theatrical order - elevating the subject into something more enlightened.
In this respect, it's interesting to note that Michel Landois' son, Paul Landois, wrote on this subject. He was primarily a playwright, but also a painter/writer who contributed to the Encyclopédie by Diderot and D'Alembert. He explained:
"Moral actions are nothing other than the voluntary actions of man, considered in relation to the imputation of their effects in common life." It's conceivable that he was working alongside his father when this piece was produced - perhaps grinding the pigments. Maybe discussing this very concept.
Michel Landois trained at the Académie de Saint-Luc in Paris, and his works were influenced by the oeuvre of Flemish artist Adam Frans van der Meulen. This particular piece is often referred to in his various biographies. It was shown at the 'Exposition Rétrospective du Paysage Flamand', at the Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in 1926, alongside works by Rubens, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and David Teniers the Younger.
Signed/dated on a rock 'Landois fe 1714' and held in a modern gilded frame with a wide moulded profile, decorated with repeating foliate ornament in low relief. The outer edge carries a continuous scrolling acanthus band, while the inner sight edge is subtly stepped.
Learn more about Michel Landois in our directory.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 42” x 34½” / 107cm x 88cm
Year of creation: 1714
Provenance: Private collection, Belgium.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Later stretcher. Canvas striplined. Craquelure throughout. The paint layer is stable. Frame in excellent condition.
Our reference: BRV2248
