Lot 82: Pierre-Athanase Chauvin , Paris 1774 - 1832 Rome A view of the pines of the Villa Borghese from the back of the Villa Medicis oil on canvas

signed and titled on reverse Vue des Pins de la Villa Borghèse / prise du derrière la Villa Médicis. / par Chauvin. oil on canvas

measurements note 7 7/8 by 12 1/4 in.; 20 by 31 cm.

V. Pomarede, Paysages d'Italie. Les peintres du plein air (1780-1830), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 3 April - 9 July 2001, Mantoua, Centro Internazionale d'Arte e di Cultura di Palazzo Te, September 1 - December 16, 2001, pp. 150-151.

From the collection of Pierre François Léonard Fontaine, Napoléon's First Architect (1762-1853).

Pierre-Athanase Chauvin was a pupil of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was trained in the neoclassical style. He was nineteen years old when he first took part in the Salon exhibition in 1793. Although he was born in Paris and trained by a French master, Chauvin moved to Rome in 1801 or 1802 where he was to spend most of his life. In Rome he became one of the stars of the international artistic community, and shared a studio with François-Marius Granet. Through Granet Chauvin was introduced to Pierre-Narcisse Guerin and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the latter of whom painted portraits of Chauvin and his wife in 1814 (Bayonne, Musée Bonnat). During the 1800s, Chauvin travelled to Florence and Naples, and began to focus on Italian views. He became a member of the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome in 1813 and, on his way back to Paris in 1827, was named a corresponding member of the Institute.

The present painting reflects Chauvin's controlled use of light and his powerful sense of atmosphere, which he learned from Valenciennes. Chauvin gives us the impression that he has been painting in the open air rather than in a studio. The pines in the composition act as a structural element, heightening the recession through space.