E.a.nousveaux (b.1811 Paris) View To The Island Of The City Seen From The Quai De L’institut

Antique watercolor (dated 1840) by the famous French landscape painter and watercolorist Édouard Auguste Nousveaux (1811, Paris - 1867). It depicts a view of Paris: the Île de la Cité seen from the Quai de l'Institut. We have found another watercolor by the same artist depicting the same view from the island (see our last image). Édouard Auguste Nousveaux (September 4, 1811, Paris - 1867, Paris) was a French landscape painter and watercolorist. He is best known for the works he created after participating in an expedition to Senegal and Sierra Leone; many of them were used in travel books and magazines. He received his artistic training at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. In 1831, at the age of just twenty, he exhibited for the first time at the Salon. Nousveaux, then thirty-one years old, was chosen to replace him, having already demonstrated an affinity for exotic themes. Upon his return in 1845, he exhibited nine watercolors at the Salon. They received a mixed reception. He was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1847. He continued to use the sketches he had made in Senegal for several more years. In 1850, he devoted himself to lithography in Paris, which received a mixed reception and was criticized for its inaccuracy or anachronism. Thereafter, little trace of significant artistic production remains, despite some collaborations with Le Magasin Peinture and L'Illustration. He continued to travel and died after returning from a military expedition. In 1890, Colonel Henri-Nicolas Frey used some of Nousveaux's watercolors to illustrate his book, West Coast of Africa: Views, Scenes, Sketches. Many publishers used his works without citing them.

Literature: Thieme/Becker XXV, 1931, 527, Benezit, Wikipedia online.
Inscription: Signed and dated 1840 lower left.
Medium: Watercolor, gouache on paper, with mat and in its original period gilt frame.
Dimensions: Image: W 8 7/8" x H 5 3/4" (22.5 x 14.5 cm), Framed: W 17 3/4" x H 15" (45 x 36 cm)
Condition: in very good condition.