Charles Lapostolet – La Combe De Brochon (côte d'Or), 1856, Charcoal Landscape, Signed

Charles Lapostolet(Velars-sur-Ouche, 1824 – 1890, Domène)
La Combe de Brochon, landscape of the Côte-d'Or, 1856
Charcoal heightened with white chalk
21.5 x 37 cm
Signed lower left in charcoal: “C. Lapostolet”
Other annotations, in charcoal: “Combe de Brochon / (Côte d’Or) / 1856”

Very good condition

Framed, under anti-reflective glass
Dimensions with frame:  26.5 x 40.5 cm

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A landscape reduced to its essentials, in a moment of face-to-face encounter with nature that demonstrates the full talent and vision of Charles Lapostolet, a painter renowned in his day but somewhat forgotten today.

The purity of the observed landscape is matched by the absolute economy of the graphic technique demonstrated here by this young artist, who pays homage to his native region while, at the same time, becoming a renowned painter of seascapes and a regular exhibitor at the Salon between 1848 and 1882.

Charles Lapostolet (1824–1890) was a student of Léon Cogniet, who was one of the great studio masters of the 19th century, undoubtedly offering his students a great deal of freedom and confidence to develop their most authentic talents rather than simply follow his example as a history painter.

In 1856, at only 30 years of age, the direct engagement with nature—as intended and shown by Lapostolet in this drawing, through the very subtle nuances of charcoal and highlights of white chalk—can be seen as an echo of some of the beautiful works on paper by artists of the Barbizon School such as Théodore Rousseau and Charles Daubigny, and even, later in the 19th century, Antoine Vollon and Léon Lhermitte.

This is a tribute to nature and to the essential dimension of geology. The absence of figures or silhouetttes — which is almost a tradition in landscape representation, particularly as a means of conveying the grandeur, majesty, and perspective of a place—allows Lapostolet to achieve a form of clarity that reflects a realistic, even resolutely modern sensibility. This drawing may also reflect an influence from the paintings and drawings of Gustave Courbet, another Burgundian artist who found his place amid the hustle and bustle of the Parisian art world while always keeping a deep attachment to his native region.

This drawing reveals a lesser-known aspect of Charles Lapostolet’s art. A renowned painter in his day and a friend of Eugène Boudin, he built his career and achieved success through his depictions of Norman ports. Traveling up the Seine from Paris, he frequently went to paint the landscapes of Honfleur, Rouen, Étretat, and Dieppe, as well as the boats in the ports of Normandy. He also traveled to Venice and Holland, as evidenced by the descriptions of his paintings and drawings in the auction catalogues following the artist’s death in 1890 and 1891.

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