Charles Louis Couturier (plailly 1768 - Châtonnay 1939)

Château des Combes à la Buisse
Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1822 lower left.
49.5 x 66 cm

Also called Beaumorier manor, built at the end of the 16th century by Claude Michalon, man-at-arms of Henri IV.

Charles-Louis COUTURIER (Plailly, Seine et Marne, 1768 - Châtonnay, Isère, 1852)

His father was a gamekeeper at the Château de Mortefontaine near Plailly. Important painters were invited to stay at the property: Vigée-Lebrun, Hubert-Robert, LFCassas, LGMoreau... We find the young Couturier a student of Louis-Joseph Jay at the Montpellier School of Drawing. The latter, born in Saint-Jean-de-Bournay in Isère, was appointed professor of drawing at the École Centrale de Grenoble in 1796. He called upon his former student from Montpellier to assist him, who quickly also became his assistant at the Grenoble Museum founded in 1798 by Jay. Couturier, assistant professor, from 1817, of Benjamin de Rolland then of Théodore Ravanat, resigned in 1848, after more than 50 years of teaching in Grenoble. Jay's childhood friend, Count Antoine Français de Nantes, born in Beaurepaire (Isère), close to Lucien Bonaparte, deputy of Isère, Peer of France, was undoubtedly also Couturier's protector. Many of the latter's works were acquired by important figures: the Duchess of Berry, the minister d'Haussez, Casimir-Périer, Count O'Donnell... Charles Couturier married Sophie Marie Julie Vincent, granddaughter of Catherine Hache, on June 5, 1811; her witness was Thomas Hache Du Mirail.