Jean Joseph Xavier Bidauld (1758-1846) - Romantic Italian Landscape, Dated 1823

Mountain view at the waterfall in Italy dated 1823

Oil on canvas Signed and dated on the right side
Period inscriptions on the back on the frame: "Bidauld, la cave..."
Bears a number 81 on the chassis of the canvas as well as on the frame.
Dimensions: 17 x 14 cm
With frame: 30 x 27 cm

In this romantic painting by Jean Joseph Xavier Bidault nature is honored; the painter expresses his emotion in front of a grandiose landscape. Three figures in the alcove of the rocks take advantage of the beauty of the view. They are tiny compared to the magnitude of the elements.

The small format of the work is conducive to painting on the motif. Our painting perfectly illustrates Jean Joseph Xavier Bidault's practice of outdoor sketching; his taste for new views and sites, grandiose which diversify the viewpoints, the mountains, the rocks where the vegetation clings and the waterfall which he transcribes in meticulous and flexible writing.
His palette favors ocher and red tones and the range of greens. In the second half of the 18th century, the practice of landscape sketching, done in oil and in the open air, spread widely across Europe.

Coming from all over Europe, artists flocked to Italy to paint the monuments of Rome and the idealized landscapes of the Roman countryside. It is in this European movement that the school led by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes and Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidault is placed. These landscape painters of the first half of the 19th century are today considered the very first open-air painters, although their compositions are still idealized. These artists took a first step towards a new vision of landscapes in painting until the emergence of the landscapes of the new generation of the Barbizon school.

Bibliography

The first landscape painter to be admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1823, Bidault belonged to the first generation of classical landscape painters of whom he was with J.V; Bertin, N. Didier Boguet and Valenciennes, one of the best representatives. It was his brother who gave him his first artistic training, then Jean-Joseph-Xavier studied at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon. He was influenced by Dutch painting, and a trip to Geneva introduced him to high mountain landscapes. In 1783, Bidault was in Paris and received advice from J. Vernet. As a true pioneer, he studied on the spot in the forest of Fontainebleau. At first an ardent defender of the historical landscape, he opposed the new naturalist school. His trip to Italy from 1785 to 1790 and his many oils taken from the motif will be decisive, he will find his own expression there and define his style. On his return to Paris he exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1791; he exhibited there until 1844. He won a gold medal there in 1812. He quickly became successful and received an encouragement prize.

Bibliography
• Lydia Harembourg - “Dictionary of French landscape painters in the 19th century”. •Casimir-François-Henri Barjavel, Historical, biographical and bibliographical dictionary of the department of Vaucluse, Carpentras, CFH Barjavel, 1841, t. I, No. 5?. • Ernest Chesneau, Art in the Imperial Residences. Compiègne, Paris, E. Panckoucke et Cie, 1863, p. 46. • Marie-Madeleine Aubrun, “The tradition of historical landscape and naturalist landscape in the first half of the French 19th century”, L'Information d'histoire de l'art, no 2, March-April 1968, p. 63-72, repr. fig. 2, p. 65. • Suzanne Gutwirth, “Jean-Joseph Bidauld. A neoclassical sensibility”, in Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld (1758-1846). Paintings and drawings [cat. exp. Carpentras, Duplessis

Museum; Angers, Museum of Fine Arts; Cherbourg, Thomas-Henry Museum, 1978], Nantes, imp. Chiffoleau, 1978, np • Élisabeth Foucart-Walter, Illustrated Summary Catalog of Paintings from the Louvre Museum and the Orsay Museum. V. French School. Appendices and index. List of paintings deposited by the Louvre, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, p. 205. Jean-Marie Moulin, Guide to the National Museum of the Compiègne Castle, Paris, Meeting of National Museums, 1992, p. 49. Museums: United States • Los Angeles, Getty Center • New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art France • Avignon, Calvet museum • Carpentras, Comtadin-Duplessis museum • Cherbourg-Octeville, Thomas Henry museum: • Dijon, Magnin museum: • Grenoble, Grenoble Museum • Lyon, Fine Arts Museum • Meudon, Art and History Museum • Toulouse, Augustins Museum • Valence, Art and Archeology Museum Paris: •Louvre Museum: View taken by Subiaco, 1789, oil on paper pasted on canvas, View of the town of Vouszano, on the shores of Lake Cellano, Naples Italian landscape: view of Isola del Liri, near Sora, 1792-1793, Landscape of 'Italy, 1793, Historical Landscape: Psyche and the God Pan, circa 1819, Marmottan Museum Monet: The Castle of Scönbrunn, 1810, With Carle Vernet, Walk of Napoleon I and Marie-Louise at the Castle of Saint-Cloud, 1811,