Lot 368: ALEXANDRE-HYACINTHE DUNOUY

ALEXANDRE-HYACINTHE DUNOUY (PARIS 1757 - 1841 LYON) LANDSCAPE WITH VESUVIUS IN THE DISTANCE signed and dated lower right: Dunouy 1811 oil on panel 8 3/4 by 11 3/4 in.; 22.5 by 29.5 cm.

With Etienne Breton, Paris;
From whom purchased by the present collector in circa 1999.

Alexandre-Hyacinthe Dunouy can be included among artists such as Valenciennes, Michallon, Bertin and Bidauld who were the first generation to embrace plein air painting. They were not concerned with the traditional types of landscape painting; they sought to capture, on paper and canvas, the light and atmosphere found in nature.

After an apprenticeship with the historical painter Gabrial Briard, Dunouy submitted a landscape to the 'Salon de la Jeunesse' in 1781. Shortly after this, in 1787-1790, the artist took his first trip to Italy. His travels through that country are well documented by numerous dated and located works (Marino 1788, Tivoli 1789, Isola 1790). His sojourn to Italy and his return trip through the Jura, Switzerland and Savoy surely provided ample material for the canvases he submitted to the Salon from 1791 onwards. Included among the subjects he presented were views from Rome, the surrounding towns, as well as the landscape of the French countryside.

The present panel, dated 1811, was probably executed during his stay in Naples, where he is recorded from 1810-1815. During this time he would certainly have been present to witness the spectacular eruption of Vesuvius in December of 1813. The painting demonstrates Dunouy's meticulous attention to detail, which he learned in part from his early collaborations with Jean-Louis Demarne and Nicolas-Antoine Taunay.