Provenance
Art market, Paris;[1] (Galerie Fischer-Kiener, Paris); sold November 1991 to Mrs. John Jay Ide, San Francisco; gift 1994 to NGA.
[1] See letter dated 28 October 1999 from Jacques Fischer, in NGA curatorial files.
Accession Number
1994.52.2
Medium
oil on paper on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 27 x 36 cm (10 5/8 x 14 3/16 in.) | framed: 37.2 x 46 x 4.4 cm (14 5/8 x 18 1/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. John Jay Ide in memory of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Donner
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Jules Coignet (1798-1860) was a French painter known for the precisely observed landscape paintings that make him one of the most important painters of the French landscape tradition in the generation after Corot. View of Lake Nemi from 1843 depicts the famous Italian lake in the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that distinguishes Coignet's best landscape paintings from the more romantic painting of his contemporaries. The 1843 date places this in Coignet's most productive period, when he was producing the precisely observed landscape paintings that connect the neoclassical landscape tradition of the early 19th century with the more atmospheric landscape painting of the generation of Corot and the Barbizon School.
Cultural Impact
View of Lake Nemi is important in the history of French landscape painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that Coignet brought to Italian landscape subjects. Coignet's landscape paintings—combining precise observation with atmospheric effect—connect the neoclassical landscape tradition with the more atmospheric landscape painting of the Barbizon School, and the 1843 painting shows this transitional position between neoclassicism and atmospheric realism.
Why It Matters
View of Lake Nemi is Coignet's precisely observed landscape: the famous Italian lake rendered in the atmospheric manner that connects neoclassical landscape tradition with the Barbizon School. The 1843 painting shows the transitional position in French landscape painting—precise observation combined with atmospheric effect.
