Neoclassical School Attributed To Pierre-henri De Valenciennes (1750-1819), Late Eighteenth - Early Nineteenth

Bergère conversing in a classic landscape with a mountainous horizon combining ancient monuments and lush nature, Italy or Arcadia.

Oil on panel mahogany parqueté

A view: 33 cm x 26.2 cm - 46 cm x 40 cm

antique gilded frame circa era I Empire very beautiful condition tiny wears, parquet flooring perfect panel, small minor restorations of the work and well executed , marvelous condition of the work and its period setting neoclassical school

unsigned but nevertheless so emblematic of the work and even the pictorial manifesto of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (Toulouse 1750 - Paris 1819), major artist of this movement and a theoretician of the "historical landscape" *, a noble landscape, in which the study of nature confronts without conflict a reconstructed vision of History, necessarily antique, composite and idealized but also naturalized. We consider Valenciennes (master and great theorist, author of "Elements of practical perspective: for the use of artists", 1799, professor at Polytechnique) as the forerunner of Corot, he who was the master of Jean-Victor Bertin, professor of Corot. Valenciennes relies on studies done outdoors, at the very heart of the truth of landscapes, in natural light, during his stay in Italy in particular, to recreate in the workshop idealized visions of history; this grandiose history, ancient history, Greco-Roman and especially Roman with its procession of signs sown in the very heart of the landscape, in the forefront of which the ancient architecture. Monuments, steles, temples, even acropolises (Getty Museum painting in support and format close to ours) punctuate grandiose landscapes populated with figures also recreated, fantasy reminiscences of Virgilian pastoralism of the Bucolics, which, combined as here to a mountainous horizon (and not steep, in a soft light) refers to the Arcadian ideal; more martial figures borrowed from the Aeneid or the annals of ancient history can also be encountered. A village with flat roofs perhaps surmounted by turret (Mediterranean architecture) is outlined in front of the mountainous perspective), an occurrence already encountered in his work.
(...)
Read the full presentation on our website by clicking here