Alexandre Dubuisson (1805 – 1870), Wooded Edge With Cows On The Path

Brown wash with white gouache highlights on paper. Signed lower right. 33 × 49.5 cm.

A pupil of Hersent at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Alexandre Dubuisson exhibited at the Lyon Salon from 1833 and at the Paris Salon in 1835, earning a medal in 1844. He divided his life between Lyon, Pont-de-Claix and Versailles. A prolific draughtsman, he devoted most of his work to landscapes animated with animals, a theme he approached with a keen sense of composition and a precise observation of nature.

In this refined wash drawing, a winding road runs through wooded slopes where a few cows graze under the watch of a herdsman. The light, enhanced with touches of white gouache, enlivens the clouds and accentuates the reliefs. The supple, energetic line structures the space, while the modulated brown washes convey a deep atmospheric perspective. The whole radiates a sense of balance and pastoral calm, characteristic of the Lyon school of landscape in the mid-19th century.
This drawing reveals the graphic mastery of an artist attentive both to living nature and to the pictorial construction of his compositions.