Lot 85: Pierre Athanase Chauvin (1774-1832)

An Italianate landscape with travellers halting at a fountain, a castle beyond dated '1805' (lower left, on the tomb) oil on canvas 24 x 291/2 in. (61 x 75 cm.) PROVENANCE Anon. Sale, Arcole, Paris, 11 December 1989, lot 75, as 'attributed to Chauvin' (FFr. 210,000 to the present owner). NOTES The artist studied in Paris under Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes from whom he learnt his mastery of light and perspective. The present picture was executed shortly after Chauvin had settled permanently in Rome and pre-dates by some two years his Banks of the Anio near Rome, formerly considered to be his earliest known dated work in Italy. Chauvin enjoyed considerable success in Rome and became a popular figure within the international artistic circle there. In 1814 he sat with his wife to Ingres for the portraits now in the Mus‚e Bonnat, Bayonne.