Provenance
Art market, Paris; purchased early 1970s by Frank Anderson Trapp [1922-2005], Amherst and Pittsburgh; gift 2004 to NGA.
Accession Number
2004.166.23
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 24.8 x 33.7 cm (9 3/4 x 13 1/4 in.) | framed: 39.1 x 48.9 x 3.5 cm (15 3/8 x 19 1/4 x 1 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Frank Anderson Trapp
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Paul Huet (1803-1869) was a French painter known for the atmospheric, Romantic landscape paintings that make him one of the most important precursors of the Barbizon School and French landscape painting. Woodland Stream from c. 1840 depicts a stream in the woods in the atmospheric, Romantic manner that distinguishes Huet's best work from the more neoclassical landscape painting of his predecessors. The c. 1840 date places this in Huet's most productive period, when he was producing the atmospheric, Romantic landscapes that connect the neoclassical landscape tradition with the Barbizon School.
Cultural Impact
Woodland Stream is important in the history of French landscape painting because it demonstrates the atmospheric, Romantic manner that Huet brought to landscape painting as one of the most important precursors of the Barbizon School. Huet's atmospheric, Romantic landscapes—combining the observation of nature with Romantic feeling—represent the transition between the neoclassical landscape tradition and the Barbizon School, and the c. 1840 painting shows this transitional position at its most atmospheric.
Why It Matters
Woodland Stream is Huet's atmospheric Romantic landscape: a stream in the woods rendered in the manner of one of the most important precursors of the Barbizon School. The c. 1840 painting shows the transition between neoclassical landscape tradition and the Barbizon School—observation of nature combined with Romantic feeling.
