A Saint, from the 'Jackdaw of Rheims'

A Saint, from the 'Jackdaw of Rheims', painted in 1868 and in the McLean Museum in Greenock, takes its subject from The Ingoldsby Legends — Richard Barham's immensely popular 1840 collection of comic verse tales, of which The Jackdaw of Rheims was among the most beloved. The poem recounts a mischievous jackdaw who steals a cardinal's ring, is solemnly cursed by the church, and eventually achieves sainthood through his repentance. The saints depicted in the legend's margins or frontispieces provided Rivière with an early opportunity to combine animal painting (the jackdaw) with historical religious costume. Painted in the same year as his career was beginning, this early work suggests the direction his mature interests would take.

As a relatively early work from 1868, the painting shows Rivière developing the skills he would later perfect — animal characterization combined with period costume and religious setting. The jackdaw, as a medium-sized corvid, demands careful feather rendering and the specific alert intelligence of that species' expression.