Description
Bertin studied initially with Girodet and later with Ingres and from them acquired a grounding in classical landscape. He began his career by submitting a historical landscape to the Salon of 1827, but shortly thereafter he broke with classical tradition and devoted himself to painting and drawing from nature. He traveled widely in Europe, particularly in Italy, where he lived for more than a decade. In this drawing on blue paper, two monks populate an Italian roadside scene. Bertin combined a close examination of nature in the specific rendering of the trees and rocks with a clear, almost abstract organization of the planes that belies his classical training.
Provenance
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Accession Number
1990.79
Medium
graphite heightened with white chalk; framing lines (arched at top) in graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 27.4 x 32.2 cm (10 13/16 x 12 11/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund
Tags
Drawing Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Graphite & Pencil French
Background & Context
Background Story
Francois Edouard Bertin (1797-1871) was a French painter known for the atmospheric, precisely observed landscape paintings of Italian subjects that make him one of the accomplished landscape painters of the French Neoclassical tradition. Landscape with Two Monks from c. 1840 depicts a landscape with two monks in the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Bertin's best work from the more general landscape painting of his contemporaries. Bertin was known for his atmospheric, precisely observed landscapes of Italian subjects, and the two monks add a contemplative dimension to the atmospheric landscape that shows the French landscape tradition at its most accomplished.
Cultural Impact
Landscape with Two Monks is important in the history of French landscape painting because it demonstrates the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that Bertin brought to Italian subjects as one of the accomplished landscape painters of the French Neoclassical tradition. Bertin's atmospheric, precisely observed landscapes of Italian subjects—adding a contemplative dimension through figures like the two monks—represent one of the accomplished traditions in French landscape painting, and the c. 1840 painting shows this tradition at its most atmospheric.
Why It Matters
Landscape with Two Monks is Bertin's atmospheric Italian landscape: two monks in a landscape rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the accomplished landscape painters of the French Neoclassical tradition. The c. 1840 painting shows the atmospheric effect and contemplative dimension that make Bertin's Italian landscapes distinctive.
