Oil By Amable-gabriel De La Foulhouze - The Boat

Amable-Gabriel DE LA FOULHOUZE (Clermont-Ferrand 1815-1887 Paris) The Boat1857oil on canvas39 x 46 cm; 62 x 67 cm (framed)signed 'A. de la Foulhouze' monogrammed 'A.F' on the sails; dated '57' lower left; on the back: an annotationin a giltwood 'Napoléon III' channel frameOriginally from Auvergne, Amable-Gabriel de la Foulhouze was an artist, but also a journalist. In 1837, he went to Paris and studied under Paul Delaroche, then Thomas Couture, where he became friends with Alfred Stevens. He exhibited at the Salon between 1845 and 1880. Although little known today, the artist enjoyed a certain notoriety in his time, not only thanks to his landscapes, but especially thanks to his genre scenes. As Adeline Chion explains, “It was at the end of the Second Empire that the artist became a fashionable painter, and this thanks to a very specific genre: the representation of the Parisian woman. In this sense, he belongs to his generation.” Like his friend Stevens, he depicted elegant women from the bourgeoisie. Their crinoline dresses, hats and parasols are markers of a certain social rank, but also of contemporary life. They often take place in landscapes frequented by high society such as the Île-de-France, Seine-et-Oise, or the beaches of the Normandy coast. La Cocodette, preserved at the Musée National du Château de Compiègne (MMPO 672; see below) attests to this. The painting we present to you seems, at first glance, to follow this same theme of modern pleasures, such as a sea trip might be. Upon closer examination, it surprises with its originality. Is it really a banal promenade or a shipwreck? The passengers seem exhausted: several, including the young women, have fallen asleep and the men seem worn out. Only the captain, from a lower social class and wearing a red cap, seems alert. Are they caught, despite themselves, in the waves of a rough sea? Are they passing by a sinking sailboat, or were they part of the boat? Perhaps it should be seen as a satire of contemporary society. Let us also note that the artist included himself in the scene, by placing his initials on the two sails. The image therefore raises many questions. There is also an influence that is beyond doubt, which is that of the Raft of the Medusa painted thirty-nine years earlier by Théodore Géricault. Integrated into the Louvre collections in 1824, it is more than likely that La Foulhouze saw it and copied it, as he had been able to do with The Massacre by Chiode Delacroix or The Rape of the Sabine Women by David, when he was still a student.