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Romain Etienne Gabriel Prieur (1806-1879)
Forest of Fontaine…
See original version (French)
29
-
Romain Etienne Gabriel Prieur (1806-1879)
Forest of Fontaine…
See original version (French)
Estimate €1,000 - €1,500
Voluntary lot
Description
Romain Etienne Gabriel Prieur (1806-1879)
Forest of Fontainebleau, the Apremont gorges
Oil on canvas
21.5 x L. 31.5 cm
On the back, stamped Luniot-Ganne, dealer in supplies for artists in Barbizon.
Provenance: sale of Romain Etienne Gabriel Prieur's studio in the mid-2000s.
Born into a family of craftsmen, Gabriel Prieur studied landscape painting with Jean-Victor Bertin (1767-1842). As early as 1831, he exhibited a "Forest Interior" and a historical landscape with "Métabus roi des Volsques" at the Salon.
In 1833, at the age of 27, he won the quadrennial Grand Prix for historical landscapes, which enabled him to go to Italy to perfect his training between 1834 and 1838.
On his return to France, he settled in Barbizon, painting nature for its own sake, like other artists attracted by the picturesque forest near Paris.
Our work is typical of his landscape painting, free from any historical or mythological dimension. The landscape is a subject in itself, no longer recomposed and idealised as in the work that won him the Prix de Rome.
In our work, the only trace of a human presence is the discreet path, one end of which can be seen in the bottom right-hand corner. Two small rocks on the left are a reminder of the uniqueness of the forest of Fontainebleau. The generous foliage of the trees invades the painted surface to such an extent that only a patch of sky can be seen in the top left-hand corner.
The Apremont gorges offered such privileged vantage points for artists that they took offence at its exploitation. In 1852, the painter Théodore Rousseau (1812 - 1867) wrote a letter-petition to the Minister of the Interior, the Duc de Morny, on behalf of "all the artists who paint the forest" and thus obtained the world's first nature reserve, an "artistic reserve".
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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