The Spring
Oil Painting
pre 1868 (painted)
pre 1868 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Barthélemy Menn (1815-1893) was born in Geneva where he was taught by W. A. Töpffer and subsequently by Léonard Lugardon (1801-1884), a former pupil of Ingres and Jean-Antoine Gros. Menn later studied with Ingres and followed him in Rome. He mostly produced portraits and landscapes close to the school of Barbizon although he made his debut with historical subjects. Menn taught two generations of painters including Maurice Dudevant, Georges Sand's son, and Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918).
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 at the end of the 1850s. It shows a mountainous landscape, vaguely reminiscent of the Alps, with two figures, one of them, a man bending over a stream, recalling the classical figure of Narcissus. The interest in rural subject and the rendering of light in plein-air are typical of the Realist movement admired by Menn, which emerged in France in the 1840s.
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 at the end of the 1850s. It shows a mountainous landscape, vaguely reminiscent of the Alps, with two figures, one of them, a man bending over a stream, recalling the classical figure of Narcissus. The interest in rural subject and the rendering of light in plein-air are typical of the Realist movement admired by Menn, which emerged in France in the 1840s.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Spring |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on paper laid on cardboard |
| Brief description | Oil painting, 'The Spring', Barthélémy Menn, Swiss school, ca. 1855 |
| Physical description | Mountainous landscape with a woman approaching a stream from which a man is drinking. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'B Menn' (Signed by the artist, lower left) |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend |
| Object history | 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. The Spring. By B. Menn. In frame. Signed. Swiss. Present century'; bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868. Historical significance: The present painting is one of a group of 6 works by Menn, originally owned by the Rev. Townshend who gathered a rich collection of 19th-century landscape paintings. It is possible that Townshend acquired directly the painting from the artist as he had the habit of spending the winter in Lausanne, not far from Geneva where resided the artist. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Barthélemy Menn (1815-1893) was born in Geneva where he was taught by W. A. Töpffer and subsequently by Léonard Lugardon (1801-1884), a former pupil of Ingres and Jean-Antoine Gros. Menn later studied with Ingres and followed him in Rome. He mostly produced portraits and landscapes close to the school of Barbizon although he made his debut with historical subjects. Menn taught two generations of painters including Maurice Dudevant, Georges Sand's son, and Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918). 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 at the end of the 1850s. It shows a mountainous landscape, vaguely reminiscent of the Alps, with two figures, one of them, a man bending over a stream, recalling the classical figure of Narcissus. The interest in rural subject and the rendering of light in plein-air are typical of the Realist movement admired by Menn, which emerged in France in the 1840s. |
| Bibliographic reference | Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900 , London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp. 70-72, cat. no. 157. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1601-1869 |
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| Record created | April 23, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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