Description
The location of this scene, probably near Paris, has not been identified with certainty. Unlike most painters of this time, Michel never traveled to Italy and focused only on depicting locations in France. Michel was always interested in Dutch art, however, and was nicknamed the "French Ruisdael"-a reference to the 17th-century Dutch landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682). After about 1808, Michel explored personal interpretations of landscape, focusing on light, sky, and space. The brooding, vaguely threatening atmosphere in this painting embodies the Romantic notion that human beings are insignificant relative to the larger forces of nature.
Provenance
[]
Accession Number
1975.78
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
Framed: 105.6 x 146.4 x 9.6 cm (41 9/16 x 57 5/8 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 88.8 x 129.5 cm (34 15/16 x 51 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Georges Michel (1763-1843) was a French painter known for the atmospheric, precisely observed landscapes of the countryside near Paris that make him one of the most important precursors of the Barbizon School. Landscape Near Paris from c. 1840 depicts the landscape near Paris in the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Michel's best work from the more idealized landscape painting of his predecessors. Michel was known for his practice of painting the countryside near Paris directly from nature, and his atmospheric, precisely observed landscapes anticipate the Barbizon School that would become one of the most important movements in French landscape painting.
Cultural Impact
Landscape Near Paris is important in the history of French landscape painting because it demonstrates the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that Michel brought to landscape as one of the most important precursors of the Barbizon School. Michel's atmospheric, precisely observed landscapes of the countryside near Paris—painted directly from nature rather than from idealized memory—anticipate the Barbizon School that would become one of the most important movements in French landscape painting, and the c. 1840 painting shows this anticipation at its most atmospheric.
Why It Matters
Landscape Near Paris is Michel's atmospheric precursor to the Barbizon School: the countryside near Paris rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most important precursors of the Barbizon School. The c. 1840 painting shows the practice of painting directly from nature that would become the hallmark of the Barbizon School.
