Pasture Landscape Near A Piece Of Water By Jules Dupré

Ceramic decoration with a large oven fire representing a pasture landscape near a pond. Around 1835. Tile signed on the back "pastures J. Dupré". Jules Dupré (1811-1889): born in Nantes and died in Isle-Adam, is a pioneering French landscape painter, like Camille Corot, of the French landscape, and influenced by John Constable. He left his studio and painted outdoors in the 1830s, around Paris, Barbizon and in Limousin. His father, originally from Isle-Adam, ran a porcelain factory in Parmain before settling in Nantes. Jules Dupré first learned about the art of decor on ceramic and admired Giricault, Le Lorrain and Rembrandt all his life. In 1823, he arrived in Paris where he worked with an uncle who employed Auguste Raffet, Louis Cabat and Narcisse Diaz de la peña. He also met Constant Troyon, a painter at the Sèvres factory. He was then admitted to the studio of the landscaper Diébolt and sold his first paintings in Paris. Having become a friend of the landscaper Louis Cabat, he persuades him to abandon ceramics to paint genre scenes and outdoor landscapes. He studied 17th-century Dutch painters, of whom he remained a great admirer, and in 1831 exhibited for the first time at the Salon with landscapes from Limousin. In 1832, he stayed in Berry with Cabat and exhibited four works at the Salon of 1833 where he obtained a second class medal as a genre painter. He went to England in 1834 to study John Constable, the master of the English landscape, who deeply influenced his work. During the Salon of 1835, Eugène Delacroix congratulated him on the bill for his skies. He receives many artists at his place like Scheffer or Barye. He frequents Barbizon with Théodore Rousseau. His relations with Rousseau are fraternal, romantic, often stormy, almost exclusive at certain times, have aroused many comments. The reciprocal influence of the two men is one of the keys to the evolution of their works. Although Van Gogh probably never met Dupré during his Parisian stays, he showed his deepest admiration for his elder all his life and had a keen eye for his work. Over a period of fifteen years, around sixty mentions can be identified in van Gogh's correspondence, most often addressed to his brother Théo. These letters contain enthusiastic descriptions of Dupré's works. In his eyes, the painter embodies French romanticism and he frequently associates his name with that of Victor Hugo.