Lancelot-théodore Turpin De Crissé (1782-1859), Landscape With A Waterfall, 1823

Lancelot-Théodore Turpin de Crissé (1782 – 1859)
Landscape with a waterfall, 1823
196 x 129 mm
Brown wash over a drawing in graphite, heightened with white
Signed with a monogram and dated “TT 1823.”, lower right in graphite

Very good condition.
Framed, under glass.
Dimensions with frame: 30 x 24 cm

This unpublished drawing by comte Turpin de Crissé comes from the album amicorum of Adèle de Maillé La Tour Landry (1787-1850), Comtesse d'Hautefort. She was the companion of the Duchesse de Berry (1798-1870) to whom Turpin de Crissé so faithfully dedicated his most famous collection of engravings: Souvenirs du Golfe de Naples in 1828. The complete album amicorum was sold on March 30th, 2021 at the Hôtel Drouot by the auction house Audap & Associés with expertise from the De Bayser study. Our drawing appeared on page 59 of this album.

The landscape depicted here, which evokes the waterfalls of Terni, is both charming and powerful, as is often the case in Turpin's drawings. His absolute mastery of the wash of brown ink allows the artist to represent rocks and vegetation altogether by simply changing the intensity of his pigment. The highlights of white bring out the movement of the water as well as the distant sound of the waterfall.

This landscape was certainly composed in the Paris studio since the artist did not, according to specialists, travel to Italy in 1823. It is interesting to note that the silhouettes of the shepherd and the goat are found in the painting entitled View of the Temple of Juno, in Agrigente, dated 1824 and coming precisely from the collection of the Duchesse de Berry (entry n°25 of the catalog of the Turpin de Crissé exhibition, in Angers and Boulogne-Billancourt, 2006/2007).

A drawing bearing the same monogram is kept in the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Angers (inv. 2008.34.1).

This sheet, which remained unpublished for nearly two centuries, is now offered separately from the rest of the album amicorum. It seemed important to sum up its provenance.