Lot 136: Alexandre-Hyacinthe Dunouy (French, 1757-1841)

Capriccio View of Rome with the Monte de Giustizia and Villa Montalto Negroni
oil on canvas
7 1/4 x 19 in. (18.4 x 18.4 cm.)

with Emmanuel Moatti, Paris.
Acquired from the above by the late John R. Gaines.

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF JOHN R. GAINES

Alexandre-Hyacinth Dunouy was born in Paris in 1757 and began his career under the tutelage of the painter Briand. He enjoyed much success as a landscape and view painter and exhibited continuously in the Paris Salon between 1791 and 1833. Dunouy can be identified with the grand 18th Century tradition of landscape painting espoused by Pierre Henri de Valenciennes and Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld whose Arcadian landscapes are early forerunners of the plein air style that would develop in the early 19th Century. An exceptionally gifted landscape painter, Dunouy embraced both the formality of the classical style of landscape painting when compositions were commonly painted within the confines of the studio, yet he was profoundly sensitive to the spontaneous experience of working in the open air.

It has been suggested that the point of view utilized by Dunouy is that from the Palantine Hill. The church to the right can be identified as that of Santa Maria Maggiore. One of the buildings in the foreground resembles that of the Palazzo del Grillo. According to Professor Anna Cavina Ottovani, the majority of the composition is likely dominated by the buildings and gardens of the Villa Montalto Negroni, the most sumptuous and vast Roman residence ever constructed within the city walls. Built in the 16th Century, it was the city residence of Felice Peretti, Cardinal of Montalto, later elected as Pope Sixtus V in 1585. This is further supported by the cluster of cypresses and trees to the right which stand atop the Monte di Giustizia, part of the immense park of the Villa. A popular and romantic vantage point for artists, the site itself was immortalized in drawings and sketches. An exact depiction of this grouping of trees entitled Le bouquet des peintres by George Augustus Wallis was recently published in an exhibition in 2001 (fig. 1). Prof. Ottani Cavina also proposes the large building in the center of the painting as that of the Palazzo di Termini, an important palazzo of the complex which faced a series of meticulously designed gardens. A popular destination for tourists, the Villa Montalto-Negroni is documented only through written and visual sources. In 1860, after Rome became the capital of the Republic, the complex was reannexed to the city and entirely dismantled to accomodate the city's central train station, Termini Station.

Apart from the faithful rendition of the Monte de Giustizia, there are some 'inaccuracies' to the view which lend to it a capriccio flavor. Dunouy has obviously taken some degree of liberty in the overall construction of the composition which does not exactly correspond with an exact view contemporary with that time. Prof. Ottani Cavina indicates some inaccuracies with the placement of certain motifs, such as, the bell tower of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore and the overall perspective looking onto the Palazzo di Termini and its surrounding grounds.

While some of the architecture in the present work contains some detail as well as a degree of high finish, it is not clear if the work is entirely a studio construction. It is more likely that he made preliminary sketches for this work and then alternated painting both outside and in the studio.

We are grateful to Professor Anna Ottani Cavina and Emanuela and Lorenzo Sestieri for their assistance in researching this view.

(fig. 1) George Augustus Wallis, Le bouquet des peintres, Galerie Eric Coatalem, Paris.