Landscape - Théodore Richard 1782 -1859

Oil on panel representing a lake landscape with a shepherd. Carved gilt wood frame (heart stripe and ribbon) Louis XVI period. Théodore Richard, born Alexandre-Louis-Marie-Théodore Richard was a painter from the South West of France. His works are notably present in the museums of Millau, Rochefort, Rodez, Aurillac, Toulouse and Bordeaux. His master was Jean-Victor Bertin. And he had as a student and very close friend, Jacques-Raymond Brascassat. In 1823, he abandoned his job as a surveyor to devote himself to painting. He then exhibited at the Paris Salon between 1827 and 1859. In 1833 he left Millau to settle in Toulouse where he opened a school of landscape painting which attracted good Toulouse society. In summer, he usually takes to the waters in the Pyrenees. At that time it was a place prized by a clientele adept at hydrotherapy. This is why Toulouse “Pyreneist” painters offered spa guests and tourists paintings of picturesque and embellished landscapes. Richard thus enjoyed success in the 1830s to 1850s. Richard painted in a classic manner Pyrenean landscapes which he reinvented. His art is thus reminiscent of the old Dutch landscape art with a restrained color palette (in greys, blues and greens) and fine light. Also its small characters and the many details both in the geography and in the vegetation and fauna are characteristic.