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Lot Essay
Born in Carpentras, Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld moved to Lyon, where he studied with his brother, the landscape and still-life painter Jean-Pierre-Xavier Bidauld (1745-1813). In the late 1770s the brothers traveled to Switzerland and Provence where they worked for several years. By 1783, Bidauld was in Paris, where he met and probably studied with the preeminent landscape painter of the age, Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). In 1785 Bidauld traveled to Rome with the assistance of his patron, the art dealer and perfumer Dulac and under the protection of the Cardinal de Bernis. During his five years in Italy, he visited the hill towns of Subiaco and Narni, the mountains in the Abruzzo region, and then went south to Naples. Throughout his Italian sojourn, however, Bidauld's favorite place to sketch and paint was unquestionably the Roman Campagna, where he made numerous trips. While in Italy, the artist favored painting en plein air - of which he was something of a pioneer - and he produced numerous oil sketches on paper, many of which featured in his estate sale.
After five years in Italy, Bidauld returned to Paris, where he exhibited at the Salon of 1791 and continued to display his work at exhibitions until 1844. The genre of historical landscapes had been recently introduced to the Academy in 1787 by Pierre-Henri Valenciennes in his Cicero uncovering the Tomb of Archimedes (Musée des Augustins, Toulouse) and The Ancient City of Agrigentum (Musée du Louvre, Paris). In the early nineteenth century Bidauld was commissioned to paint Neoclassical landscapes for the leading figures of Europe, including Carlos IV of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte and Louis-Philippe; and in 1823 he became the first artist admitted to the Académie des Beaux-Arts for landscape painting. However, with the growing interest of realism in the genre ushered in by Théodore Rousseau, Bidauld, who stubbornly defended the then outmoded tenets of Neoclassicism, eventually fell out of favor. His vision of the Italian landscape was later revived by the century's most successful plein-air painter, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.
This hilly landscape depicts the Roman Campagna and was probably painted around 1790. The artist probably initially sketched an impression of the view on paper, attempting to capture the scene literally, complete with aerial perspective, changing light effects and various climatic conditions. He would then have used his oil sketch as a working aid to produce a more finished painting. This view is stylistically and compositionally related to Bidauld's Monte Cavo from Lake Albano in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, of the same date. Both works are infused with spontaneity and employ similar techniques and color range to create the poetic, crystalline atmosphere so typical of Bidauld's early work.
After five years in Italy, Bidauld returned to Paris, where he exhibited at the Salon of 1791 and continued to display his work at exhibitions until 1844. The genre of historical landscapes had been recently introduced to the Academy in 1787 by Pierre-Henri Valenciennes in his Cicero uncovering the Tomb of Archimedes (Musée des Augustins, Toulouse) and The Ancient City of Agrigentum (Musée du Louvre, Paris). In the early nineteenth century Bidauld was commissioned to paint Neoclassical landscapes for the leading figures of Europe, including Carlos IV of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte and Louis-Philippe; and in 1823 he became the first artist admitted to the Académie des Beaux-Arts for landscape painting. However, with the growing interest of realism in the genre ushered in by Théodore Rousseau, Bidauld, who stubbornly defended the then outmoded tenets of Neoclassicism, eventually fell out of favor. His vision of the Italian landscape was later revived by the century's most successful plein-air painter, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.
This hilly landscape depicts the Roman Campagna and was probably painted around 1790. The artist probably initially sketched an impression of the view on paper, attempting to capture the scene literally, complete with aerial perspective, changing light effects and various climatic conditions. He would then have used his oil sketch as a working aid to produce a more finished painting. This view is stylistically and compositionally related to Bidauld's Monte Cavo from Lake Albano in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, of the same date. Both works are infused with spontaneity and employ similar techniques and color range to create the poetic, crystalline atmosphere so typical of Bidauld's early work.