Charles Montlevault (1835-1897) Walkers Along A Cliff, Oil On Canvas Signed

 Charles Montlevault (1835-1897)
Walkers along a cliff
Signed lower left
Oil on canvas
35 x 27 cm
in good condition
Framed 48 x 39.5 cm

The manner in which the painting was executed is characteristic of Montlevault's style, as described by Gérald Schurr in the short biography devoted to him in his Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Painters, excerpted below.
The subject matter and execution reflect the characteristics of outdoor painting at that time, which is associated with the Barbizon school. This large cliff in particular is reminiscent of the reliefs in the Fontainebleau Forest that fascinated the painters of that era.

"Charles Montlevault (1835–1897), whose real name was Charles Joly, had a brutal and powerful style reminiscent of Daumier. He was one of those bohemians who are often found in the history of painting, but rarely in Lyon. Employed in a silk factory, he travelled from Algeria to Turkey, and this journey inspired him to devote himself entirely to art, especially as he came into a sizeable inheritance on his return. He quickly became a Zola-esque character, a likeable tramp heavily imbibed with absinthe, who was found dead on a pavement one November morning. His memories of Arabia initially led him towards Orientalism, but he soon preferred to sketch the corners of the countryside he travelled through on foot, from the ports of the North Sea to the Mediterranean. His touch is free, his paint thick, colourful and generous, his drawing schematic and accurate."
Gérald Schurr, Les Petits Maîtres de la peinture (1820-1920)