Curtis_O_Baer_2010

33. Théodore Rousseau French, 1812 – 1867

Landscape in the Auvergne ca. 1830

Pencil on paper 7 5 ⁄ 8 x 11 inches ( 19 . 5 x 28 cm.) Estate stamp lower left: Lugt 2436

provenance Vente Rousseau, Paris, April 27 – 30 , 1868 ; Sighel Collection, Orléans; Feilchenfeldt, Zurich; Collection Curtis O. Baer. literature Michel Schulman, Théodore Rousseau, Catalogue Raisonné de l’Oeuvre Graphique, Paris, 1997 , no. 72 , p. 105 , illus.; Atlanta, 1985 , cat. no. 72 , p. 127 Rousseau’s brief period of work in the Auvergne in 1830 – 31 marked a transition between the end of his years of formal studies and the beginning of a short period of professional success. During this time, he worked prolifically outdoors, producing a series of oil sketches on paper typified by an insistent horizontal format and rich but tery impasto . The palette of these paintings is often light and filled with varying shades of greens and yellows, unlike the darker tones and deep browns he later preferred. These pleine aire sketches were very popular when Rousseau brought them back to Paris in 1832 . Drawings from this period are rare. This drawing is densely worked and impressively detailed in its depiction of the deeply layered valleys of this mountainous area. The inclusion of a figure crossing the bridge in the front of the drawing is more typical of early works in which the graphic quality of the line is still restrained in favor of what is being depicted. While typically unpopulated, the Baer landscape depicts a seated artist, almost invisible amidst the patterned lines of the pencil, sketching the scene at the lower left.