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Classical Landscape with Figures
(Jean-Victor Bertin)

Description

In this carefully constructed capriccio view the artist has balanced the tightly grouped trees at the left with a group of crisply defined buildings on a hilltop, perhaps based on Civita Castellana, with a larger house below. In the center a man in classical dress is attempting to persuade a frightened horse, whose rider seems unable to control it, to ford the stream that flows into the small lake below the hill. On the other side of the lake a fisherman is preparing to moor his boat, pulling it shoreward with a rope attached to a pole. In the distance two indistinct figures walk together among the trees. Bertin has not defined the subject clearly and it appears to be a classical fantasy rather than a historical or mythological story that he is illustrating. Typically he has employed naturalistic details in a scene which otherwise bears little connection to nature.

Measurements
12 1/2 x 18 1/8 ins. 32.5 x 46 cm
Type
Oil on canvas
Where is It?
Private Collection
Historical Period
Neoclassicism - 1780-1820
Subject
Landscape
School
French
Catalogue
1999-An Eye on Nature II: The Gallic Prospect. French Landscape Painting 1785-1900.
Hard back catalogue of the Exhibition held in New York. 195 pages fully illustrated with 37 full colour plates and 65 black and white illustrations (many full page). Forward by Patrick Matthiesen and Guy Stair Sainty. Introduction by Guy Stair Sainty. £35 or $50 inc. p.&p.

(Click on image above)
Price band
Sold or not available