Cheret, Lachaume De Gavaux - 19th Century - Oil On Canvas, Romantic Landscape

CHERET – Jean-Louis LACHAUME DE GAVAUX (1820–1882)
Oil on canvas, large format
19th-century Romantic mountain landscape

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A vast Romantic composition depicting an imaginary mountainous landscape. In the spirit of works by Alexandre Calame, the Godchaux family, or the masters of the Dauphiné and Savoyard schools, this painting illustrates a common 19th-century landscape practice: the studio recomposition of an “ideal landscape,” created by assembling real natural elements (a raging torrent, a dramatic gorge, a luminous peak) in order to heighten its visual impact.

In the foreground, the scene opens onto a narrow, shaded rocky gorge planted with conifers, from which a turbulent torrent bursts forth, its foam rendered with strong impasto. The lower right is enlivened by the small figure of a painter taking a break. Seated beside his gear—his easel and walking stick—his face turned slightly toward us, he adopts a melancholy, introspective posture. The perspective recedes toward a bright background, revealing a majestic snow-capped summit, Alpine- or Pyrenean-inspired, standing out against an azure sky nuanced with clouds. A characteristic work in the pursuit of the “Sublime,” it demonstrates subtle plays of shadow and a powerful contrast between the darkness of the valley and the sunlit brilliance of the peak.

Presented in a large frame with gilded mouldings, accented by a blackened-wood inner slip (marie-louise). Canvas mounted on its original keyed stretcher.

Condition:
Overall in very good condition. Sound paint surface with a consistent age-related network of craquelure. Note a very discreet tear in the lower left corner. Old moisture halos are present on the reverse of the canvas, completely dry and with no impact on the painted surface on the front.

Dimensions:
• Frame: 141 × 108 cm
• Stretcher: 130 × 98 cm
• Visible image: 121 × 88 cm

Biography:
Jean-Louis Lachaume de Gavaux, known as Chéret, born June 18, 1820 in New Orleans and died January 6, 1882 in Paris (11th arrondissement), was a theatre set designer.

The son of a music composer who had several comic operas performed and published albums in Le Ménestrel, Chéret produced numerous stage sets, notably: the gardens of Chenonceaux and Les Huguenots; Act I of Sylvia; the desert in Le Roi de Lahore; the Tartar set for Michel Strogoff; the shipwreck in Paul et Virginie; the banks of the Nile in Aïda; Act II of Le Tribut de Zamora; the mills in Le Prophète; the Pompeii set in Le Roi Carotte; the ice set for La Prise de Pékin by d’Ennery; the principal sets for Cendrillon; the land of birds in La Chatte blanche; the aquarium in Peau d’âne; the volcano in Le Voyage dans la lune; the lake in Guillaume Tell; and the last fifteen tableaux of L’Arbre de Noël.

The last sets to leave his workshops at 93 rue du Chemin-Vert were those for the first three tableaux of Quatrevingt-treize, for which—on his sickbed—he had made the models. He died at 8:30 p.m., after four days of a very painful agony, caused by intestinal cancer from which he had long suffered[1].

He had been a Knight of the Legion of Honour since October 20, 1878. After his funeral at Saint-Ambroise church, he was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. His works have been sold at public auction 23 times. The earliest recorded sale dates to 1987 (Arbre au bord de la mer au soleil couchant), and the most recent concerns Portrait présumé de Chopin, presented in 2023.

Works:
View of the Tuileries Garden, 1835, Musée Condé, Chantilly

Notes and references:
L. P. Laforêt, “Courrier des théâtres,” La Presse, no. 7, January 8, 1882.
National Archives, “LH/1423/35 [archive],” on LEONORE, October 20, 1878.
Jules Prével, “Courrier des théâtres,” Le Figaro, no. 10, January 10, 1882.

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