Entourage Of Sablet - Mourning Woman In A Stormy Mountain Landscape

Entourage of Jacques SABLET
Woman in mourning in a stormy mountain landscape
Oil on canvas
H. 60 cm; W. 84.5 cm
Around 1805

More than a landscape, our painting is a psychological work. It is the reflection of the thoughts of this woman, represented in the foreground in her mourning dress. Grieving over the loss of her husband (which we imagine), this young woman sits, tired, her mind elsewhere, next to the tomb lit by a ray of sunlight. The thistle at her side, treated with the finesse of a Flemish still life, is the symbol of the pain of Christ or the Virgin. It is not placed here by chance. On the right, in the background, a vast landscape of low mountains stands out in the fog and stormy clouds, certainly symbols of this woman's torment. In the sky, a break in the blue sky, and on the ground a meadow lit by a ray of sunlight are synonymous with the hope of the life to come. Stylistically the work is placed in the east of France. The track of Switzerland and Jacques Sablet seems adapted to the composition, its finesse and the topography.