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The Great Outdoors The Great Outdoors
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“Sparkle with repose” was the effect the British artist John Constable (1776-1837) said he strove for in his landscape paintings. His French contemporaries, following his lead, had the same idea. If success is measured by fame, Constable achieved his goal, and they didn’t. He’s a star. But León Pallière? Adrien Dauzats? Alexandre-Hyacinthe Dunouy? Only wonkish scholars are likely to know their names now.“Sparkle with repose” was the effect the British artist John Constable (1776-1837) said he strove for in his landscape paintings. His French contemporaries, following his lead, had the same idea. If success is measured by fame, Constable achieved his goal, and they didn’t. He’s a star. But León Pallière? Adrien Dauzats? Alexandre-Hyacinthe Dunouy? Only wonkish scholars are likely to know their names now.
Lucky for them that one of those scholars is the collector and dealer Wheelock Whitney III, who has a passion for French art from the years between neo-Classicism and Romanticism, and a particular love for gleaming little oil sketches on paper done out of doors — en plein-air — in that time. For years he sought them out and bought them up. In 2003 he gave his pictures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where 50 of them make up the exhibition called “The Path of Nature: French Paintings From the Wheelock Whitney Collection, 1785-1850.”Lucky for them that one of those scholars is the collector and dealer Wheelock Whitney III, who has a passion for French art from the years between neo-Classicism and Romanticism, and a particular love for gleaming little oil sketches on paper done out of doors — en plein-air — in that time. For years he sought them out and bought them up. In 2003 he gave his pictures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where 50 of them make up the exhibition called “The Path of Nature: French Paintings From the Wheelock Whitney Collection, 1785-1850.”
Although most of the artists are French, when you’re in the show, you’re in Italy. For northern European artists in the late 18th century that was the place to be, especially Rome and its environs. The allure was much the same as for tourists now: history, warmth, la dolce vita, and, for artists, a taste of creative freedom. In Paris painters plugged away in cramped studios mastering their craft by the book. If they hoped for acceptance into the career mills known as salons, that had to adhere to academic fashion. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with the Revolution succeeded by the reign of Napoleon, that meant history painting: magniloquent tableaus — battles, shipwrecks, coronations — in which myth and reality met.Although most of the artists are French, when you’re in the show, you’re in Italy. For northern European artists in the late 18th century that was the place to be, especially Rome and its environs. The allure was much the same as for tourists now: history, warmth, la dolce vita, and, for artists, a taste of creative freedom. In Paris painters plugged away in cramped studios mastering their craft by the book. If they hoped for acceptance into the career mills known as salons, that had to adhere to academic fashion. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with the Revolution succeeded by the reign of Napoleon, that meant history painting: magniloquent tableaus — battles, shipwrecks, coronations — in which myth and reality met.
Once on the highway south, though, clear of Paris, away from schools and salons, artists could loosen up, relax, paint what they wanted. They carried their materials on their backs: brushes, pencils, paint, a portable easel and lots of paper. They set up their studios where they pleased, often outside, in a roadside grove of trees, on a rise overlooking a town, at the foot of a waterfall crashing down.Once on the highway south, though, clear of Paris, away from schools and salons, artists could loosen up, relax, paint what they wanted. They carried their materials on their backs: brushes, pencils, paint, a portable easel and lots of paper. They set up their studios where they pleased, often outside, in a roadside grove of trees, on a rise overlooking a town, at the foot of a waterfall crashing down.
Nature was the teacher now, a new kind of educator, both directive and permissive. It sent you storms and pitch-black nights; it also gave you rainbows and moonlight. Most important, nature wasn’t a thing; it was an atmosphere, a learning environment. When artists spoke of painting “d’après nature,” they meant painting inside nature, surrounded by it, as part of it.Nature was the teacher now, a new kind of educator, both directive and permissive. It sent you storms and pitch-black nights; it also gave you rainbows and moonlight. Most important, nature wasn’t a thing; it was an atmosphere, a learning environment. When artists spoke of painting “d’après nature,” they meant painting inside nature, surrounded by it, as part of it.
This is the position Simon Denis (1755-1812) situates himself in an oil study called “Mountainous Landscape at Tivoli,” done in the countryside not far from Rome on a spring or summer afternoon, with what looks like a thunderstorm coming on.This is the position Simon Denis (1755-1812) situates himself in an oil study called “Mountainous Landscape at Tivoli,” done in the countryside not far from Rome on a spring or summer afternoon, with what looks like a thunderstorm coming on.
Denis, who was born in Antwerp, lived in Paris and died in Naples, could be a painter of cool precision. His many cloud studies — done years before Constable’s famous ones — are exacting in their meteorological detail.Denis, who was born in Antwerp, lived in Paris and died in Naples, could be a painter of cool precision. His many cloud studies — done years before Constable’s famous ones — are exacting in their meteorological detail.
In the Tivoli landscape, though, he fudges details and goes for something looser and realer: the enveloping illusion of a landscape, grass-scented, hazed in humidity, tinted a pre-storm green-gray.In the Tivoli landscape, though, he fudges details and goes for something looser and realer: the enveloping illusion of a landscape, grass-scented, hazed in humidity, tinted a pre-storm green-gray.
Other plein-air painters worked with the same freedom, taking creative, first-thought-best-thought shortcuts. Paul Flandrin’s mid-1830s “View of the Villa Torlonia, Frascati, at Dusk” is done in flat, loosely brushed blocks of shadow and light. The moon was just rising, molten white; he had to catch that moment with its surreal, sculpturing incandescence.Other plein-air painters worked with the same freedom, taking creative, first-thought-best-thought shortcuts. Paul Flandrin’s mid-1830s “View of the Villa Torlonia, Frascati, at Dusk” is done in flat, loosely brushed blocks of shadow and light. The moon was just rising, molten white; he had to catch that moment with its surreal, sculpturing incandescence.
Entire pictures — of a distant Rome by Charles Rémond, of a weed-choked ruin by Andre Giroux, of an Umbrian waterfall by the great Camille Corot — are done in a virtuosic shorthand of flicked, dragged and stippled strokes that leave behind scintillating crests of paint. Like much art based on the rejection of conventions thoroughly mastered, the oil sketches have tremendous vitality, far more than the paintings they were meant to be studies for.Entire pictures — of a distant Rome by Charles Rémond, of a weed-choked ruin by Andre Giroux, of an Umbrian waterfall by the great Camille Corot — are done in a virtuosic shorthand of flicked, dragged and stippled strokes that leave behind scintillating crests of paint. Like much art based on the rejection of conventions thoroughly mastered, the oil sketches have tremendous vitality, far more than the paintings they were meant to be studies for.
And that’s the odd thing, at least to a viewer today: These improvisations were basically disposable means to a larger end. They were never meant to be exhibited, or even seen by anyone apart from the artists who made them and their assistants and friends. They were considered warm-up exercises, fieldwork, reference material for the production of spit-and-polished oil-on-canvas salon paintings. More often then not the spark was lost in the transition from sketch to masterwork, and the names of artists whose best work remained unvalued and invisible faded from history. And that’s the odd thing, at least to a viewer today: These improvisations were basically disposable means to a larger end. They were never meant to be exhibited, or even seen by anyone apart from the artists who made them and their assistants and friends. They were considered warm-up exercises, fieldwork, reference material for the production of spit-and-polished oil-on-canvas salon paintings. More often than not the spark was lost in the transition from sketch to masterwork, and the names of artists whose best work remained unvalued and invisible faded from history.
At the same time not all northern painters in Italy restricted themselves to local landscapes, nor was nature per se the only salable subject. And while Rome still harbored the ghost of the Classical age, it was also the capital of the Roman Catholic church, which had a powerful visual presence. Although France was technically dechristianized during the Revolution, artists traveling south could engage with religion as they wished. And whether they were devout or not, in Rome they found clients who were.At the same time not all northern painters in Italy restricted themselves to local landscapes, nor was nature per se the only salable subject. And while Rome still harbored the ghost of the Classical age, it was also the capital of the Roman Catholic church, which had a powerful visual presence. Although France was technically dechristianized during the Revolution, artists traveling south could engage with religion as they wished. And whether they were devout or not, in Rome they found clients who were.
When Pope Leo XII declared 1825 to be a Holy Year, Grand-Tour-style pilgrims from across Europe poured into the city. And artists, northern émigrés among them, went to work. Claude Bonnefond’s “Pilgrims Arriving at Rome During the Jubilee,” with emoting wayfarers in medieval robes, is a souvenir of that upmarket time.When Pope Leo XII declared 1825 to be a Holy Year, Grand-Tour-style pilgrims from across Europe poured into the city. And artists, northern émigrés among them, went to work. Claude Bonnefond’s “Pilgrims Arriving at Rome During the Jubilee,” with emoting wayfarers in medieval robes, is a souvenir of that upmarket time.
There was also brisk business in paintings of modern Italian life, including images of peasants and what were perceived as other native types. Léopold Robert specialized in pictures of highway robbers known as brigands. Although a serious threat to travelers, with the coming of the Romantic era brigands became sympathetic figures in art and literature: snazzily dressed rebels with hearts of gold who lived outside the law. This is the angle that Robert pushes in his 1824 “Brigand and His Wife in Prayer,” in which a swarthy bandito, wearing dangle earrings and holding a gun, kneels with his pregnant mate at wayside cross against a storm-tossed mountain vista.There was also brisk business in paintings of modern Italian life, including images of peasants and what were perceived as other native types. Léopold Robert specialized in pictures of highway robbers known as brigands. Although a serious threat to travelers, with the coming of the Romantic era brigands became sympathetic figures in art and literature: snazzily dressed rebels with hearts of gold who lived outside the law. This is the angle that Robert pushes in his 1824 “Brigand and His Wife in Prayer,” in which a swarthy bandito, wearing dangle earrings and holding a gun, kneels with his pregnant mate at wayside cross against a storm-tossed mountain vista.
This painting, in oil on canvas, is not a sketch or study. It’s a finished studio product, of the right size, finesse and content (exotic but pietistic) to find a place in culturally aspiring French bourgeois homes with their miniature versions of grand salons.This painting, in oil on canvas, is not a sketch or study. It’s a finished studio product, of the right size, finesse and content (exotic but pietistic) to find a place in culturally aspiring French bourgeois homes with their miniature versions of grand salons.
What links Robert’s brigand tableau to most of the work around it is its landscape setting. Nature, if only brought in as a stage prop, is a thematic constant throughout the show, as it was in the continuing 19th-century story of French art.What links Robert’s brigand tableau to most of the work around it is its landscape setting. Nature, if only brought in as a stage prop, is a thematic constant throughout the show, as it was in the continuing 19th-century story of French art.
At least one landscape painter in the Whitney collection, Jules Coignet, is on record has having visited a Constable exhibition in Paris in 1824. Stunned, he headed straight out of the city to the forest of Fontainebleau and began doing oil-on-paper portraits of trees. Other artists followed, settling in the village of Barbizon, where they developed total-immersion nature painting.At least one landscape painter in the Whitney collection, Jules Coignet, is on record has having visited a Constable exhibition in Paris in 1824. Stunned, he headed straight out of the city to the forest of Fontainebleau and began doing oil-on-paper portraits of trees. Other artists followed, settling in the village of Barbizon, where they developed total-immersion nature painting.
This paved the way for Impressionism, a plein-air style based on a dynamic of incompletion, and on a vision of nature as a process of perpetual formation and change. The artist’s task was to capture that process, on the spot and on the fly — to sketch it, you might say — in paint.This paved the way for Impressionism, a plein-air style based on a dynamic of incompletion, and on a vision of nature as a process of perpetual formation and change. The artist’s task was to capture that process, on the spot and on the fly — to sketch it, you might say — in paint.
The story of Impressionism and its celebrity painters is, of course, beyond the scope of the Met’s modest show, organized by Asher Ethan Miller, an assistant research curator in the European paintings department. And that’s fine. We don’t need it.The story of Impressionism and its celebrity painters is, of course, beyond the scope of the Met’s modest show, organized by Asher Ethan Miller, an assistant research curator in the European paintings department. And that’s fine. We don’t need it.
We’re given enough: a handful of sparkling pictures by a group of unfamiliar artists who may not be art historical monuments, but are certainly vital building blocks, and who are seen at their best and most alive here: under the sky, feeling the breeze, painting away.We’re given enough: a handful of sparkling pictures by a group of unfamiliar artists who may not be art historical monuments, but are certainly vital building blocks, and who are seen at their best and most alive here: under the sky, feeling the breeze, painting away.

“The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Wheelock Whitney Collection, 1785-1850” remains through April 21 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org.

“The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Wheelock Whitney Collection, 1785-1850” remains through April 21 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org.