Catching frogs

This painting is a fine example of Menn's transitional manner when he took his distance with history painting under the influence of Ingres and was attracted by a freer approach of nature developed by Corot and the school of Barbizon. The composition combines a landscape with a pleasant genre scene and is executed in a broader manner, which places the execution of the painting in the 1840s. The title of the painting, 'Catching frogs', given in the donor's inventory elucidates the subject matter. The interest in rural subject and atmospheric effects is typical of the Realist movement admired by Menn, which emerged in France in the 1840s.