Claude Thiénon, 1827, Two Silhouettes Near A Lake, Ink Wash Drawing, Signed

Claude Thiénon (1772 – 1846)
Landscape on the edge of a lake, two silhouettes under a tree, 1827
Pencil, pen and brown ink wash
22 x 17 cm
Signed with the monogram, lower left, and dated: “CT / 1827 »

Very good condition, a very slight tear on the upper edge, in the center
Presented as is, in sheet

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A painter, draftsman and lithographer, once the student of Louis-Gabriel Moreau and of the neo-classical landscaper of German origin Alphonse Mandevare, Anne Claude Thiénon (1772 – 1846) is a subtle and yet confidential artist of his time. The cousin of Jean-Baptiste Isabey, therefore closely linked to the highest level of academic and ambitious painting, certainly also close to Eugène Isabey, he made his career between France and Italy. Between 1798 and 1833, Claude Thiénon regularly exhibited his landscapes at the Salon. He was appointed director of the pensioners of the Kingdom of Holland in Rome. The artist's drawings and correspondence attest that he traveled in particular to Germany (Mainz) and France (Amboise, Blois, Clisson, Tours, Poitiers).

The landscape here represented offers too few recognizable elements to be identified. One can imagine a peaceful day in a park, the day after a storm which would have both filled the lake and broken the top of the tree, although it remains strong and majestic.

This very well preserved drawing is executed in the beautiful nuances of a bistre wash of which Thiénon exploits all the possibilities with great mastery. The use of the paper reserve is also very subtle, the movement of the vegetation is very free, graphically, and the large tree struck by lightning at its top, in the foreground, is a true splendor.

It is in the collections of the Albertina in Vienna that we find convincing comparisons with this drawing. Two Thiénon leaves are kept there. One will find these same very delicate washes of brown ink and these same silhouettes seen from behind contemplating a large body of water (see in the photo gallery).

The signature, on the lower left, of the artist's simple monogram, indicates that this was certainly a drawing intended for an album amicorum, thus offered by Claude Thiénon, C.T., in all confidence and friendship. A beautiful example of this monogram appears in particular in the archives of theLa Nouvelle Athènes gallery, in Paris (see their catalogue entry for more information).

Thiénon's graphic works are preserved in some of the most renowned institutions across Europe and the United States, including the Albertina in Vienna, the Louvre, the Fondation Custodia, the British Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery in Washington.