Description
This painting depicts the park associated with the royal Chateau of Saint-Cloud, famous for its terraced gardens overlooking the River Seine. At the left of the scene, one of the park's gazebos is set among the trees. This view from Saint-Cloud over the river was a traditional and popular one. Very little is known about the life of Pau de Saint-Martin. Most of his surviving works are landscapes, the titles of which indicate he painted in the Forest of Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris, as early as 1795. Perhaps the artist is most important as the teacher of his nephew Theodore Rousseau (1812–1867), who became the founder of the Barbizon school of landscape painting.
Provenance
Clifford Duits, London 1967-68. Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., New York, 1973. Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Given to the CMA on 20 October 1977.
Accession Number
1977.121
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
Unframed: 43.9 x 67.6 cm (17 5/16 x 26 5/8 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
Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin (1751-1827) was a French landscape painter known for his views of the environs of Paris that combine topographical accuracy with the picturesque landscape manner of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. View of Saint-Cloud, Near the Seine from 1809 depicts the village of Saint-Cloud on the Seine with the precise topographical rendering that makes Pau de Saint-Martin's views invaluable documents of the Parisian countryside in the Napoleonic period. The 1809 date places this during the Napoleonic Empire, when the Parisian countryside was beginning to be transformed by the suburban development that would eventually replace the rural landscapes that Pau de Saint-Martin recorded.
Cultural Impact
Pau de Saint-Martin's views of the Parisian countryside are important documents of the Napoleonic period because they record the appearance of the Ile-de-France before the suburban development that would transform it in the 19th and 20th centuries. View of Saint-Cloud, Near the Seine records the village of Saint-Cloud as it appeared in 1809, before the suburban development that would eventually replace the rural landscape with the residential neighborhoods that now surround Paris.
Why It Matters
View of Saint-Cloud, Near the Seine is Pau de Saint-Martin recording the Parisian countryside before suburbanization: the village of Saint-Cloud rendered with topographical precision in 1809, before the 19th-century development that would transform the rural Seine landscape. The painting is an invaluable document of the Napoleonic countryside.
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