Physical description
View of a bay under a large cloudy sky with mountains in the distance, a sailing boat reaching a ship on the far left; a group of rowing boats on the far right.
Place of Origin
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (made)
Date
1817 (made)
Artist/maker
Tauney, Nicolas Antoine, born 1755 - died 1830 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
Oil on canvas
Marks and inscriptions
'Taunay'
Dimensions
Height: 45.7 cm estimate, Width: 56.5 cm estimate, Height: 620 mm frame, Width: 740 mm frame, Depth: 80 mm frame
Object history note
Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868
Historical significance: This painting is a fine example of Taunay's output while he was in Brasil between 1816 and 1821. According to A. d'E. Tauney (1911) this painting dates from 1817. It depicts the bay of Rio de Janeiro under a large cloudy sky with a group of sailing and rowing boats in the foreground. The luminous palette and refined brushwork is still Neoclassical in vein and appears still under the influence of the Italianate landscape painters of the preceding generations
Taunay belongs to the generation of French painters whose art is representative of the taste under the Consulate and Empire. His landscapes usually show an atmospheric sky within a harmonious composition, which prefigure the emerging Romantic movement.
Comparable works include View of Rio de Janeiro Bay, 1816-1821, Palacios das Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro and View of Outeiro, Beach and Church of Gloria, Museus Castro Maya, Rio de Janeiro.
Historical context note
19th-century French art is marked by a succession of movements based on a more or less close relationship with nature. At the beginning of the century, Romantic artists were fascinated by nature they interpreted as a mirror of the mind. They investigated human nature and personality, the folk culture, the national and ethnic origins, the medieval era, the exotic, the remote, the mysterious and the occult. This movement was heralded in France by such painter as Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). In its opposition to academic art and its demand for a modern style Realism continued the aims of the Romantics. They assumed that reality could be perceived without distortion or idealization, and sought after a mean to combine the perception of the individual with objectivity. This reaction in French painting against the Grand Manner is well represented by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) who wrote a 'Manifesto of Realism', entitled Le Réalisme published in Paris in 1855. These ideas were challenged by the group of the Barbizon painters, who formed a recognizable school from the early 1830s to the 1870s and developed a free, broad and rough technique. They were mainly concerned by landscape painting and the rendering of light. The works of Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña (1807-1876), Jules Dupré (1811-1889), Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867), Constant Troyon (1810-1865) and Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) anticipate somehow the plein-air landscapes of the Impressionists.
Descriptive line
Oil painting, 'Coast Scene, Rio de Janeiro', Nicolas Antoine Taunay, 1817
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900 , London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 100, cat. no. 218.
The following is the full text of the entry:
Nicolas Antoine TAUNAY (1755-1830)
French School
Born in Paris, the son of the painter Pierre Antoine Henry Taunay, he was for a short time a pupil of Lépicié, In 1784 he became agréé of the Académie royale and from then until 1787 he was in Rome on an official stipend. He went to Rio de Janeiro in 1816 to advise on the reorganization of the Academy of Fine Arts and remained there until 1822. He settled in Paris and two years later became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
218
COAST SCENE, RIO DE JANEIRO
Signed on the sail of a boat on left Taunay
Canvas
18 x 22 ¼ (45.7 x 56.5)
Townshend Bequest
1612-1869
Taunay was in Rio from 1816 to 1822; according to A. d'E. Taunay (1911) this painting dates from 1817.
Prov. The Rev. C. H. Townshend; bequeathed to the Museum in 1868.
Lit. A. d'E. Taunay, 'A missão artistica 1816' in Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brazileiro, 74, pt 1, 1911, repr. p. 112 (deals with Taunay pp. 26149); Thieme-Becker, xxxii, 1938, p. 474.
Moritz Schwarcz L. and Dias E. eds. Nicolas-Antoine Taunay no Brasil. Uma leitura dos tropicos Rio, 2008, p.
Exhibition catalogue
A. d'E. Taunay, 'A missão artistica 1816' in Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brazileiro, 74, pt 1, 1911, repr. p. 112.
U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler,, xxxii, 1938, p. 474.
Lebrun-Jouve, Cl., Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755-1830), Paris, 2003, p. 289.
Moritz Schwarcz, L., O Sol do Brasil. Nicolas-Antoine Taunay e as desventuras dos artistas franceses na corte de d. João, Sao Paulo, 2008, p. 257, fig. 1.
Exhibition History
Nicolas-Antoine Taunay: A reading of the Tropics (Picture Gallery of the State of São Paulo 17/07/2008-07/09/2008)
Nicolas-Antoine Taunay: A reading of the Tropics (Museu Naciobal de Belas Artes (MNBA), Rio de Janiero 06/05/2008-06/07/2009)
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscape; Boats; Coast-lines; Bay; Rio de Janeiro
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
