Forest Interior with a Painter, Civita Castellana

1825/1830

André Giroux

Painter, French, 1801 - 1879

André Giroux

Attributed to

Boulders hulk at the center of a dense forest in this horizontal landscape painting on paper. A clearing along the bottom edge of the composition leads to a person facing away from us while standing at an easel. One hand is lifted to the canvas or paper on the easel, and the person wears a light gray coat. A light brown dog sits attentively at the artist’s back. Sunlight falls from an unseen opening in the canopy onto the boulders, which glow caramel brown and slate gray, and trees curve up and over to enclose the artist and rocks. The scene is loosely painted in earthy greens, and brushstrokes are especially visible in the boulders and the vegetation making a screen in the background.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 92


Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Art market, Paris;[1] (Galerie J. Fischer - Ch. Kiener, Paris); sold November 1991 to Mrs. John Jay Ide, San Francisco; gift 1994 to NGA.
[1] See letter dated 28 October 1999 from Jacques Fischer, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1996

  • In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Brooklyn Museum of Art; The Saint Louis Art Museum, 1996-1997, no. 107, repro., as Forest Interior with an Artist, Civita Castellana.

2001

  • Paysages d'Italie: Les peintres du plein air (1780-1830), Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Centro Internazionale d'Arte e di Cultura di Palazzo Te, Mantua, 2001, no. 11, repro.

2020

  • True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2020 - 2022, no. 8, repro.

Bibliography

2000

  • Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 265-267, color repro.

2006

  • Conisbee, Philip, and Franklin Kelly. "Small is Beautiful." National Gallery of Art Bulletin, no. 34 (Spring 2006): 2-17, fig. 2.

Inscriptions

reverse: Civita Castellana

Wikidata ID

Q20185048


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