Day 305 - Plein air painting


 July 5, 2022

Galleries 802-804 are closed (due to a staffing shortage after the holiday, perhaps?).  Gallery 805 is lined with 33 small  oil landscapes,  most dating to the early decades of the 19th century, when, according to the introductory signage, plein air painting gained in popularity.  The sign further notes that these small paintings were generally intended as sketches, undertaken to train the eye and the hand and not meant for public display. That said, many appear fully realized to me.

The gallery is a reminder of the ongoing importance of Italy as a destination for artists. Most of the painters featured were French or Flemish, but scenes of Italy predominate in their work. (French artists did not begin exploring their own landscape until the 1830s, a placard tells me.)  Ancient Roman ruins and Tivoli were favorite subjects. 

It's probably inevitable that I chose an Italian scene for today's entry. I'd never heard of Francois Edouard Picot, but I find his small painting (perhaps 15 inches wide and 12 inches high) entitled "View of Porta Pinciana from the Garden of the Villa Ludovisi" absolutely charming. For one thing, nature rules: the ancient and less ancient structures are set in a lush green landscape,  with what I assume are the foothills of the Apennines in the background. The composition is pleasing: a diagonal connects the rough  stone wall in the foreground, the crenellated roof of a building farther back, the trees that rise above it, and the billowing white clouds. The plants in the foreground are beautifully detailed, the palette of greens and ochre and blue and white restful. It's a wonderful vista. But surely nineteenth-century Rome was more developed than this painting and other views of Rome on display in the gallery suggest. 




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