Lot 85: Louis Gauffier , Poitiers 1762 - 1801 Florence A view of the Benedictine abbey at Vallombrosa oil on canvas, in a French neoclassical carved and gilt wood frame
Paris, Grand Palais; Mantua, Palazzo Te, Paysages d'Italie. Les peintres du plein air (1780-1830), Paris, April 3 - July 9, 2001; Mantua, September 1 - December 16, 2001, no. 68.
Literature
E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, vol. IV, Paris 1976, p. 636; F. Zeri, "La percezione visiva dell'Italia e degli italiani nella storia della pittura,vol. VI: Atlante", in Storia d'Italia, Turin 1976, p. 99, reproduced fig. 97; A. Ottani Cavina, "Le strade per Vallombrosa. Dipinti di Louis Gauffier", in 'Il se rendit en Italie'. Etudes offertes à André Chastel, Rome 1987, pp. 591-98, reproduced fig. 2; A. Ottani Cavina & E. Calbi, "Louis Gauffier and the question of J.-L. David's Vue présumée du jardin du Luxembourg," in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXIV, January 1992, pp. 30-32, a detail reproduced on p. 31, fig. 47; A. Ottani Cavina, in Paysages d'Italie. Les peintres du plein air (1780-1830), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, April 3 - July 9, 2001; Mantua, Palazzo Te, September 1 - December 16, 2001, pp. 104-5, cat. no. 68, reproduced in colour, and a detail, also reproduced in colour, on p. 106.
Provenance
On the art market, Dublin, 1927, where acquired by the prior of Glenstal Abbey, Murroe, Co. Limerick, Ireland; By whom sold ('The Property of the Right Reverend Abbot and Chapter of Glenstal Abbey, Murroe, Co. Limerick'), London, Christie's, December 13, 1974, lot 80 (as a set of four), for 19,000 gns. to Holstein; P. & D. Colnaghi Ltd., London (inv. L251), according to labels on the reverse; With Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, Ltd., London, from whom acquired by the present owner in or before 1979.
Notes
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION A native of Poitiers, Gauffier moved to Paris where he was apprenticed to Hughes Taraval and won the premier grand prix de peinture - jointly with Jean-Germain Drouais - in 1784. He left for Rome later that year and remained in Italy until the end of his life, except for a brief trip back to Paris in 1789 (year in which he exhibited at the Salon and was agréé à l'Académie). In March 1790 he married his pupil, the portrait painter Pauline Chatillon, in Rome, but was forced to leave the city three years later after the assassination of a French journalist and diplomat, Nicolas-Jean Hugou de Bassville, at the hands of a mob. Gauffier is first documented in Florence on April 26, 1793, seeking refuge there with other French painters from the Académie de France à Rome.υ1 The move was to prove extremely significant for Gauffier's artistic career, for, as Anna Ottani Cavina has observed, Gauffier's flight to Florence led to a substantial change in subject-matter in his paintings: once removed from the restrictions of the Académie, Gauffier turned away from history painting and embraced instead the genres of portraiture and landscape painting. This wonderfully atmospheric painting originally formed part of a set of four views of the Benedictine abbey of Vallombrosa in Tuscany. The abbey is situated in the Appenines, approximately 30 kilometers south-east of Florence, and is surrounded by forests of beech and fir trees (as Gauffier's painting clearly illustrates). Founded in 1038 by Saint Giovanni Gualberto, a Florentine nobleman, it soon became the home of the Vallombrosani; a branch of the Benedictine Order. The building underwent a few structural changes over the centuries: the abbey was extended at the end of the Quattrocento; the east tower was erected in 1529; the wall in the 17th and the fishing-pond in the 18th century. The monastery was suppressed during the Napoleonic era and was only re-opened in 1817. Evicted in 1866 when it passed to the Foresteria, the monks returned to the abbey in 1949, which today is opened to tourists. Artists and poets through the ages traveled to Vallombrosa, drawn to its solitude and the natural beauty surrounding it.υ2 In Gauffier's own time the painters Antoine-Laurent Castellan (a pupil of Valenciennes) and François-Xavier Fabre traveled there towards the end of the summer in 1798. Castellan's account, published some twenty years later, describes their journey from Florence on horseback, passing through mountainous regions to the 'forêt glaciale des sapins immenses et séculaires' surrounding the abbey. Gauffier's painting provides us with a visual illustration of Castellan's words; the dense forest of trees framing the abbey. As attested to by the inscription on the reverse of a drawing done in situ, Gauffier spent time at Vallombrosa during the summer of 1796.υ3 Like Castellan and Fabre, he must have resided in the monks' cells and spent his days sketching views of the abbey and the surrounding countryside. The three other views that constitute Gauffier's set are: a View of the Val d'Arno from the Paradisino of Vallombrosa (Philadelphia, Museum of Art, see fig. 1)υ4; Figures on horseback bidding farewell to the monks at Vallombrosa (Philadelphia, Museum of Art, see fig. 2);υ5 and a View of the Falls at Vallombrosa (San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum, see fig. 3). The four views are thematically linked: the two paintings in Philadelphia both show the fishing-pond, one from above and the other from below, whilst the waterfall of the Vicano river, the subject of the San Francisco canvas, is visible in the centre of the present composition. All four paintings are signed, but only this canvas and that in San Francisco are dated (1797), and this is the only view that is inscribed 'Florence'. The signature and date on the present painting indicate that it was painted by Gauffier in Florence in 1797, the year after he spent the summer at Vallombrosa. It is reasonable to assume that he produced drawings and painted sketches while at the abbey, using these to complete his paintings on his return to Florence. Indeed the artist's working practice of a drawing, painted sketch, and finished picture, is clearly illustrated with his View of the Val d'Arno from the Paradisino of Vallombrosa, of which exist a finished chalk drawing on paper (Montpellier, Musée Fabre, inv. 837-3-837); a small-scale painting, apparently sketched en plein air (Montpellier, Musée Fabre, inv. 825-1-115); a larger 'finished' painting in which figures have been added (Philadelphia, Museum of Art, inv. W75-1-1); and in this case a number of painted replicas or variants, adapted by the artist some time later (three of these exist in Paris, Musée Marmottan, inv. 20; Montpellier, Musée Fabre, inv. 825-1-114; and another formerly with Hazlitt's, London).υ6 This view of the abbey at Vallombrosa is remarkable not only for its topographical accuracy but also for its atmospheric light. Gauffier was clearly intrigued by the effects of light on nature and his landscape is dappled in sunlight, the foreground alternating between light and shadow. His panoramic view of the abbey from Paradisino in Philadelphia also demonstrates the artist's interest in light and aerial perspective: the extensive landscape is bathed in golden light as the sunset approaches. These effects of light were determined at an early stage, as they are already blocked out in a large preparatory drawing for this view in Montpellier (see fig. 4).υ7 That drawing, made up of two sheets joined together, shows exactly the same view and is extremely detailed but for the figures which are merely sketched out. Gauffier accurately portrays the abbey's architecture, the nature that surrounds it, and the effects of light and shadow, annotating the colors to be used for the shadows and specific trees.υ8 Gauffier returned to paint an oil sketch en plein air of the same site, though the view is taken from a point slightly to the right and closer in: the purpose of this was to block out the scene's colours and shadows.υ9 The present painting represents the last stage in the creative process: the execution of the abbey and its surroundings is refined and the figures have now been added in the lower right foreground. Some of the monks have disrobed and are playing pallone al bracciale (a sort of 'handball') in shirts and doublets, whilst others look on. The representation of monks at leisure is unusual and Gauffier's abbey provides an austere and dramatic backdrop to the figures caught up in their enjoyable game. The set of four paintings to which the present work once belonged originally hung at Glenstal Abbey, a thriving Benedictine monastery in County Limerick, on the southwest coast of Ireland. Built in the 19th century as a castle in the romantic Norman style, the monastery was acquired and transformed into an abbey in 1927. The paintings were probably purchased around that time to decorate the interior; the suitability of their subject - Vallombrosa being an abbey of the same Order - no doubt being a contributing factor to their acquisition. The paintings were subsequently sold (as a single lot, in 1974) to raise funds for the restoration of the abbey and it was on this occasion that the set was dispersed. 1 Gauffier is mentioned in a note sent from François Cacault in Rome to Paris. Other French painters in Florence included Nicolas-Didier Boguet, the Sablet brothers, Bénigne Gagneraux and François-Xavier Fabre. 2 As Ottani Cavina has observed, the site was frequented by Ludovico Ariosto in the 16th century, John Milton in the 17th, William Beckford and Alphonse de Lamartine in the 19th century. 3 The preparatory drawing in Montpellier of a View of the Val d'Arno from the Paradisino of Vallombrosa is annotated and inscribed on the reverse: 8 Aôut 1796 (August 8, 1796); see Ottani Cavina, under Literature, 2001, p. 99, cat. no. 62, reproduced in colour. 4 Ottani Cavina, op. cit., pp. 99-101, cat. no. 64, reproduced in colour p. 101. 5 See Ottani Cavina, under Literature, 1992, p. 30, fig. 45. 6 Ottani Cavina, op. cit., 2001, pp. 99-103, cat. nos. 62-65, all reproduced, and for the Hazlitt's painting see p. 100. 7 Montpellier, Musée Fabre, inv. 837-1-838, chalk on paper, 517 by 785 mm.; Ottani Cavina, ibid., p. 104, cat. no. 66, reproduced in colour. 8 The sheet is inscribed lower right: 1 Beau Verd/ 2 Ombre violatre et verd gris/ et grand arbre (faggi)/ 3 verd frais/ 4 terre Rougeatre/ petits sapins/ 6 grand faggi/ 7 Masso del diavolo. 9 Montpellier, Musée Fabre, inv. 825-1-113, oil on canvas laid on panel, 17.9 by 25.2 cm., inscribed on the reverse: Vue de Vallombrosa peinte d'après nature par Louis Gauffier; Ottani Cavina, ibid., pp. 104-5, cat. no. 67, reproduced in colour p. 104.
