Oil Painting, 'The Windmill', Charles Hoguet, German school, ca. 1845-1868

A windmill in a flat landsape under a cloudy sky, small figures walking on a path lined with a fence in the right foreground; hut-shaped barns in the background.

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend

Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, listed in the 1868 post-mortem register of the contents of his London house (V&A R/F MA/1/T1181) in the Library as 'Oil on panel. The Windmill. By Hoguet. In frame. Signed. German? Present Century'; bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868.

Historical significance: Nicknamed 'Raphael of Windmills', Charles Hoguet was famous for landscape paintings such as the present one. It shows a windmill in the countryside with small figures walking on a path on the right, in the background are hut-shaped barns.
The artist chose to dissolve here the forms with his brushstrokes while the cool, almost uniform palette is enlivened by patches of light in the sky and on the barns' roof. The interest in the rendering of light effects and dramatic atmospheric condition is typical of the German realists.
The technique and palette were probably influenced by the French painter Isabey to whom Hoguet was apprentice for some time in Paris. This composition is also reminiscent of the 17th-century Dutch imagery, which aroused a new interest in Realist painters. It is difficult to assess whether the artist executed this painting directly after the motif in plein air while travelling in Holland or reworked earlier sketches later in his Berlin studio.

Charles Hoguet (1821-1870) was born in Berlin to French parents. He studied first with the seascape painter Wilhelm August Christian Leopold Krause (1802-1864) and later completed his apprenticeship in Paris with Eugène Ciceri (1813-90). He was also later on an apprentice with Eugène Isabey (1803-86) who was also teaching at the same time Eduard Hildebrandt (1817-1868). He is famous for his still lifes, marine paintings and landscapes. He won medals in Paris in 1848 and 1859.

This painting is a fine example of Hoguet landscape paintings including windmills, a recurrent subject matter in his oeuvre which is dominated by a cool and almost monochrome palette. The composition and palette is slightly reminiscent of Isabey's technique, but also recall the 17th-century Dutch imagery which aroused a new interest among Realist painters of the 19th century. This type of landscape may also be based on memories from his visit to Holland.

1551-1869