JOHAN BARTHOLD JONGKIND (LATTROP 1819-1891 SAINT-ANDRÉ)

Johan Barthold Jongkind was a highly talented watercolorist, and this medium seems to have allowed him to express extraordinary creative freedom. Highly valued for their modernity and their free and original style, the artist's watercolors greatly contributed to his reputation.

In 1878, Jongkind settled in the village of La Côte-Saint-André, northwest of Grenoble, in the Isère region. He worked primarily outdoors in the area, creating in his sketchbooks many landscapes, which he dated and precisely located.

The present work is comprised of four pages of a sketchbook joined together in pairs to form respectively the recto and the verso of the composition. On the recto is a view of the Isère river with Fort Rabot on the left that is dated 2 June 1885. A very similar view, dated to the previous day (1 June 1885), was recently sold at auction (Christie’s, Paris, 22 March 2017, lot 74). On the verso is a different view of the Isère dated to 1884. Recto and verso were probably pasted together by a later collector.

Many of Jongkind's watercolor sketchbooks were left in the artist’s studio and sold upon his death.