Physical description
Woodland scene: in the foreground a stream, in which a cow is drinking; a stone bridge above with a white horse followed by a woman wearing a red apron. Trees in the background.
Place of Origin
Compiègne, France (painted)
Date
ca. 1826 (painted)
Artist/maker
Rousseau, Pierre-Etienne-Théodore, born 1812 - died 1867 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
oil on paper laid on canvas
Marks and inscriptions
TH.R
Dimensions
Height: 23 cm estimate, Width: 33.5 cm estimate
Object history note
Constantine Alexander Ionides bought CAI 56 for £240, from Hollander and Cremetti, on 26/02/1883 (cf. Ionides' manuscript inventory, private collection). He bequeathed the painting to the Museum in 1900.
Historical significance: This painting is a fine example of Rousseau's early manner. It has been identified with one of the work exhibited in the Cercle des Arts, Paris, 1867, organised by Hector-Henri-Clément Brame and Paul Durand-Ruel a year after they convinced Rousseau to sell them 70 sketches with which he had always refused to part.
The date that appears in the 1867 exhibition catalogue was, according to Hélène Toussaint from the Louvre (written communication, Feb. 1973), randomly chosen and the monogram 'TH.R' was added on this occasion. Hélène Toussaint also compared CAI.56 with other two compositions: the early Telegraph Tower on Montmartre (c. 1826 - Musée municipal, Boulogne), one of Rousseau's first painted studies, and Pierrefonds dans la forêt de Compiègne, Private collection. Should this sketch be executed at roughly the same time as the Télégraphe de Montmartre, we can then assume that it was made when Rousseau was still a teenager c. 1826.
The subject matter was identified as the bridge of Batignies in the forest of Compiègne and the composition was very likely made after the motif in plein-air. At that time, Rousseau was regularly taken by his cousin, the landscape painter Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin (1782-1850) to work in the forest of Compiègne before he entered the studio of Joseph Rémond in c. 1826.
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 on paper laid on canvas, 'Pont de Batignies in the Forest of Compiègne', Pierre-Etienne-Théodore Rousseau, France, ca. 1826
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Schulman, M., Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867), Catalogue Raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1999, n. 4 p. 82
Burty, Ph., Maîtres et petits maîtres : les études peintes de Théodore Rousseau, texte du catalogue de l'exposition de 1867, Paris, Charpentier, 1877, p. 77.
Kauffmann, C.M., Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900 , London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp. 89-91, cat. no. 195.
The following is the full text of the entry:
Pierre Étienne Théodore ROUSSEAU (1812-67)
French School
Born in Paris in 1812, he was studying painting professionally with the painter Redmond from the age of fourteen. He began painting from nature during excursions in the environs of Paris, including Fontainebleau, from 1826 to 1829. From 1831 to 1836 he exhibited at the Salon, but the naturalism of his landscapes made him the most controversial figure of his time and the consistent refusal of the Salon to accept any of his work between 1837 and 1848 earned him the title of Le Grand Refuse. From about 1837 he went to Barbizon nearly every year and became the central figure of the group of painters associated with that place, but public recognition came only with the Revolution of 1848 and the first class medal awarded by the free jury of the 1849 Salon.
Lit. R. L. Herbert, Barbizon revisited, New York, 1963.
195
PONT DE BATIGNIES, IN THE FOREST OF COMPIEGNE
Signed lower right TH. R
On paper laid on canvas
Size of original painting 8 ¾ x 12 (22.2 x 30.5);
present size 9 x 13 (23 x 33.5)
Ionides Bequest
CAI.56
The shadowy nature of the cow in the foreground and other weaknesses have led to doubt being cast upon this picture's authenticity. Recently, however, Hélène Toussaint of the Louvre (written communication) has convincingly identified it with an early work by Rousseau entitled Pont de Batignies, exhibited in 1867. The size given in the catalogue (22 x 31 cm.) fits exactly and Mlle Toussaint was able to confirm her identification with reference to an engraving of the Pont de Batignies, now destroyed. The date given in the catalogue is 1828, when Rousseau was 14 or 15. (Cf. Le Télégraphe de Montmartre, at Boulogne, exh. Rousseau, Louvre, 1967-68, no. I).
Prov. Constantine Alexander Ionides; bequeathed to the Museum in 1900.
Exh, Etudes peintes de Théodore Rousseau, Cercle des Arts, Paris, 1867, no. 6 (catalogue reprinted in P. Burty, Maitres et petits maitres, 1877, p. 77).
Lit. Long, Cat. Ionides Coll., 1925, p. 57; V. & A. Museum, The Barbizon School, p. 16, pl. 5.
Kauffmann, C. M., The Barbizon School, V&A Museum, 1965, p. 16.
Exhibition History
Etudes peintes de Théodore Rousseau (Le Cercle des Arts. 01/01/1867-31/12/1867)
Production Note
Attributed by H. Toussaint in 1873.
Materials
Paper; Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscape; Trees; Bridge; Stream; Cows; Woodland
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
