Paul Huet - The Statue At The Bottom Of The Park - On The Reverse Another Landscape And The Stamp Of The Workshop

“He is a young man of the greatest talent. You will share Delacroix’s satisfaction and mine. »
Victor Hugo about Huet

Student of Pierre Narcisse Guérin and Baron Gros, Paul Huet was born into a family of Rouen drapers ruined by the Revolution. His mother died when he was ten years old and young Paul joined the Henri IV high school in Paris. His vocation as an artist came to him when he saw a print by Rembrandt. Bored by Guérin's academicism, he admired the great painters of Romanticism, and in particular Géricault.

He studied with Gros between 1818 and 1822 and then became a great friend of Eugène Delacroix. It was Bonington who introduced him to landscape, in 1826. It was in this pictorial genre that Huet became known, advocating outdoor work and painting on the subject. A year later Huet debuted at the Salon Intime of Lamartine, Dumas, Gauthier, Huet was also received by Sand in Nohant. But it was Victor Hugo who was his best defender: “pp” In 1837 he became drawing teacher to the Duchess of Orléans. And in 1839 the Duke of Orléans commissioned a series of watercolors representing southern cities. He was made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1841.

On the barricades after the coup d'état of 1851, he was almost shot on rue Saint-Placide. Blacklisted, he continued to paint despite everything. In 1855 his Flood of Saint-Cloud earned him the compliments of Delacroix: “Your flood is a great masterpiece, it pulverizes the search for small fashionable effects”. A tireless traveler, he crossed France and England, multiplying his masterpieces, before dying in Paris in January 1869. A monument pays homage to him erected in the Saint-Cloud park.

“Thank you, dear Paul Huet. My old heart is moved by your memory! You see that our youth was right. As for you, you have proven it by all the beautiful works that have made your reputation today. I have watched you as you climbed from success to success. Today I am happy to rediscover your old friendship at a young age. »
Victor Hugo to Huet

Museums: Louvre Museum, Orsay Museum, Rouen Museum of Fine Arts, etc.

Provenance: Collection Suzanne Desselle and Jean-Claude Roujon, donors to the Louvre