Defer Jules (1832-1902) "view Of Nice From The Baumettes" Antibes Cannes Provence Monaco Paris

DEFER Jules (1803-1902)

"View of Nice from the Baumettes"

Oil on canvas, relined (original frame),
Monogrammed lower left and located "Nice",

Beautiful and luminous work of the Nice painter Jules Defer which represents a view of Nice from the heights of the city and more precisely of the Baumettes district.
The Baumettes district also called "Petit Paris", located to the west of the city of Nice and a few minutes from the Promenade des Anglais, was in the 19th century a place for weekend strolls and relaxation for the people of Nice.
We can see in the foreground, under a finely crafted olive tree and surrounded by Mediterranean vegetation, a young couple dressed in traditional Nice costume resting. The second plan offers us a general view of the city of Nice and its monuments including the Saint-François tower, the churches of Saint-Hélène and Saint-Pons and in the distance La Maison de l'Anglais ("Château de Mont-Boron ").

A pupil of the famous landscape painter Jean-Victor Bertin, Jules Defer entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1824.
In 1829, he entered the competition for the Grand Prix de Rome in the "Historical Landscape" section.
He settled on the French Riviera shortly after the annexation of Savoy and the County of Nice (1860), first in Monaco, then in Nice around 1863. He will focus all his life on the production of paintings brushed on the motif in the Nice region, generally in small formats, borrowed from a beautiful sensitivity and highly sought after by collectors.
By his precise gesture and his palette of colors, the painter Jules Defer succeeds in depicting with precision and on the moment the Mediterranean vegetation, its atmosphere and its play of light.

We can compare our work with another painting by the artist Jules Defer which represents this same place "Nice des Baumettes" and which is reproduced in the book "Le Pays de Nice et ses Peintres au XIXe siècle" Ed Academia Nissarda. Also reproduced on the website "The Land of Nice and its Painters in the 19th Century" in the biography of the painter Jules Defer.

This work is a beautiful testimony to the end of the 19th century in the city of Nice.

Size: 56 x 46 cm without its frame and 74 x 63 cm with its original frame in gilded wood.

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