Oil painting, 'A view of the Dent du Midi with Figures', Jean Bryner, Swiss school, ca.1850-1868

View of a moutain chain whose summits are covered with snow,a ruined tower with two figures conversing and two goats in the foreground.

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend

Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, listed in the 1868 post-mortem register of the contents of his villa in Lausanne (V&A R/F MA/1/T1181) as 'Oil on millboard. Landscape. By Bryner. In Frame'; bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868.

Historical significance: This painting is one of Bryner's several versions of the view of the Dent du Midi, a mountain chain situated in the Chablais Alps in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. A View of La Dent du Midi is in the Musée Arlaud in Lausanne while another dated 1847 was sold at Phillips London, 12 Mar. 1996, lot 13.
They all follow the same compositional formula with the 'Dent' placed on the right background and a large area in the foreground where the artist painted different elements with or without figures.
Bryner was essentially a painter of mountainous landscape in the region of the Alps between France and Switzerland. The British Museum owns five hand-coloured aquatint which provide a good example of his oeuvre.

Jean Bryner (1816-1906) was a landscape painter and engraver born in Bassersdorf near Zurich. Very little is known about his life and his training is unknown.

This painting is a fine example of his output essentially composed of mountain views. Here is depicted the Dent du Midi, a mountain chain situated in the Swiss Alps. The figures in the foreground and ruined tower are fantasist and have the mere function to enliven the scenery. Bryner produced a few versions of this view with a different foreground in each of them. The warm golden glow enlivened by pink and blue hues is characteristic of Bryner's palette.

1626-1869