Mountainous Landscape By General Atthalin

View of a road winding along the mountainside with peasants transporting logs on a cart pulled by four oxen. In the background, the roofs of a village appear, suggesting a location in southern Europe, probably in Italy. The watercolor is signed lower right and measures 15x21.5 cm. It is framed in its original wooden and gilded stucco frame, which has some small accidents and, having never been unframed, stains on the inside of the underglass. After a brilliant military career under the Empire, General Louis Atthalin (1784-1856) became close to the Duke of Orléans, becoming his aide-de-camp and taking painting lessons from Horace Vernet. Under the reign of Louis-Philippe, he actively supported the regime, becoming a deputy and then a peer of France. The revolution of 1848 deprived him of all responsibilities.