Claude-louis Chatelet (1753-1795) Waterfalls At Tivoli

Claude-Louis CHATELET
(Paris, 1753 – Paris, 1795)
Cascades at Tivoli
Grey wash, Indian ink, white chalk, on formerly blue paper
H. 51 cm; L. 36.5 cm
Captioned at the bottom (text difficult to read)
Around 1779

Provenance:
- Probably collection of Richard Mique, his sale in March 1795 (Two views of the Tivoli waterfalls)

- Perhaps collection of Hubert Robert, his sale after his death, August 5, 1809, Olivier CP, Paillet Expert, lot 182 of the catalog: Two large black chalk drawings, highlighted with white, studies of the Terny waterfalls (sic) and that of Tivoli

To be placed stylistically alongside Hubert Robert or Joseph Vernet, Châtelet is best known as one of Marie-Antoinette's favorite painters, who commissioned several paintings from him, and for whom he would produce, in the first part of the 1780s, a whole series of views of the Petit-Trianon estate, intended to illustrate albums that the sovereign would offer to her friendly or diplomatic relations. During this same period, he also depicted many castles, parks and gardens in the Ile de France (Bellevue, Neuilly, Ermenonville, etc.), and for example taught drawing to the eldest son of the Marquis de Girardin, Stanislas. But despite this celebration of the joy of living under the Ancien Régime and the protection of the Queen, he would become, for reasons unknown, an intransigent, even fanatical revolutionary: a sworn member of the Revolutionary Tribunal, close to Robespierre, he would end up being guillotined a few months after him. Nothing is known of Châtelet's youth or training until the mid-1770s. We then discover a traveling artist, who visited Switzerland around 1776/1777, as well as Italy (Rome, but especially the region of Naples, Calabria and Sicily), in the company of Vivant-Denon, around 1778/1779. There he produced a large number of drawings, some of which were used to illustrate two works: Tableaux topographiques, pittoresques... de la Suisse, published by the former governor of the Louvre, Jean-Benjamin de La Borde between 1780 and 1786, and Voyage pittoresque, ou Description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, published by the Abbé de Saint-Non between 1781 and 1786. The technique of our two powerful drawings corresponds, despite the Italian subjects, to that of the "Swiss" drawings; the blue paper, the gray wash for the mineral elements, the Indian ink and the chalk for the figures and for the water, give a lot of force and a very modern side to the whole, sublimated by the size of the sheets. The tiny characters, treated in the manner of Volaire or Hilaire, with theatrical and rather stretched gestures, contribute to the impression of monumentality of the sites and to the grandeur of nature. Relatively disrespectful of an exact topography, Châtelet gives his landscapes a spectacular emphasis, which announces the atmospheres of the German romanticism of a Friedrich … The Louvre, in this same technique, keeps a sheet (RF 38962) of identical format, but with a horizontal view, titled The Storm, and coming from the Jean Masson collection; we find this format, in vertical, in two sheets sold in New York at Christie's on 01/28/2000 (lot 76 of the catalog, sold for $36,800), very close to our drawings, whose subject is the Reichenbach waterfall in Switzerland. Other drawings of the same technique, but with more modest dimensions and a less spectacular rendering, possibly coming from the same notebook, are kept in several American public collections such as the Morgan Library in New York, the NGA in Washington, the Harvard Art Museums, or private ones such as that of Jeffrey Horvitz. Another one, representing the Terni waterfall, of a similar format to ours, and coming from the Bizemont-Prunelé collection, is on the Parisian art market.