Forest Landscape with a Woman Carrying Water

(Jacques-Auguste Regnier)

A pupil on Jean-Victor Bertin, Regnier did not share his master’s taste in classicising historical scenes, but was drawn towards a more naturalistic vision of landscape. He was inspired by many areas of France which were to become popular amongst his younger contemporaries – the Auvergne, the Dauphine, Normandy, Picardy and the Vendee. In his forays into the countryside around Paris he painted often in the forest at Compiegne and at Pierrefonds, the former possibly being the setting for our painting. Regnier exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1812-1857, and won prizes in 1819 and 1828, the latter being awarded for a landscape near Auvergne, View taken at Thières on the road to Cordon, Study after Nature. He seems to have enjoyed a certain amount of success under the Restoration, and was particularly admired by the Duchess de Berry, who may have assisted him in obtaining the commissions for the chapel of St. Denis at Saint Roch, Paris, and decorations for the palace of Fontainebleau.

The present picture reveals Regnier’s Italianate artistic heritage. The depiction and play of light on trees and leaves, the harmonious luminosity and the carefully constructed composition recall the work of Bertin as well as the large canvasses of Henri-Pierre de Valenciennes. The coulises leading the eye into the distance, indicating a grasp of complex spatial construction, and the broader handling of naturalistic details, show a knowledge of the landscapes of his contemporaries Michallon, Coignet and Fleury. The scene depicted may represent the cave on Mt. Alverna where Saint Francis received the stigmata during a retreat in 1224.

Private Collection, France;
Sotheby’s Monaco, 3rd December 1989, lot 512, as École Française…..