Johan Barthold JONGKIND
(Latrop 1819 - La Côte-Saint-André 1891)
Landscape with the Château of Pupetières
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Watercolour, over an underdrawing in black chalk, on two joined sheets of paper.
Dated and located18 Sept 1873 pupetière in black chalk in the lower centre margin.
Numbered no 4226 and 374 in the lower right margin.
250 x 598 mm. (9 7/8 x 23 1/2 in.) [image]
283 x 598 mm. (11 1/8 x 23 1/2 in.) [sheet]
Dated and located18 Sept 1873 pupetière in black chalk in the lower centre margin.
Numbered no 4226 and 374 in the lower right margin.
250 x 598 mm. (9 7/8 x 23 1/2 in.) [image]
283 x 598 mm. (11 1/8 x 23 1/2 in.) [sheet]
Drawn on the 18th of September 1873, the present sheet is an exceptionally large and fresh example of Jongkind’s watercolour technique. During the 1870s in particular, the artist tended to prefer an extended horizontal format for his watercolours, often using a double-page spread of a rectangular sketchbook. The scene depicted here is a view of the 19th century château of Pupetières, close to Châbons in the valley of the river Bourbre, in the Dauphiné region of France. Jongkind first came to the area, with his companion Joséphine Fesser, in the autumn of 1873, when this watercolour was made. They visited Joséphine’s son Jules, who was working as a chef at the château, which had been rebuilt in a neo-gothic style by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the early 1860s. Jongkind fell in love with the landscape of the Dauphiné, and they returned to the area every summer thereafter. In 1878 Jules Fesser bought a home in the nearby town of La Côte-Saint-André, where Jongkind and Joséphine spent much time, and where the artist is buried.
Among comparable watercolour views of the landscape with the château of Pupetières in the distance is one dated 17 August 1874, in a private collection, and two others, dated 13th and 29th August 1875, in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. A later watercolour of the château and its surroundings, dated 14 August 1877, is in another private collection. The artist does not seem to have produced any painted views of Pupetières, however.
Among comparable watercolour views of the landscape with the château of Pupetières in the distance is one dated 17 August 1874, in a private collection, and two others, dated 13th and 29th August 1875, in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. A later watercolour of the château and its surroundings, dated 14 August 1877, is in another private collection. The artist does not seem to have produced any painted views of Pupetières, however.
Johan Barthold Jongkind was a pupil of Andreas Schelfhout in The Hague, and through his recommendation gained a scholarship to study with the French landscape painter and watercolourist Eugène Isabey in Paris. Jongkind arrived in Paris in 1846, soon meeting and befriending artists such as Théodore Rousseau, Camille Corot and Constant Troyon. In 1847 he made the first of several trips to Normandy, returning in 1850 and 1851 in the company of Isabey. He made his Salon debut in 1848, and a few years later gained the support of the art dealer Pierre Firmin Martin, who was to play a crucial role in promoting the group of landscape artists who are today known as the pre-Impressionists. Following the Exposition Universelle of 1855, where his work met with little success, Jongkind fell into an alcoholic depression and returned to Holland. He lived and worked in Rotterdam but achieved little commercial or financial success. The proceeds of a benefit auction organized by Martin on Jongkind’s behalf - which included works by such artists and friends as Corot, Isabey, Troyon and Rousseau, as well as François Bonvin, Charles-François Daubigny, Gabriel-Alexandre Decamps and Félix Ziem - allowed him to return to Paris in 1860. Three years later he took part in the Salon des Refusés, and thereafter enjoyed a number of productive and successful years. He spent much time in Normandy, where he met Eugène Boudin and Claude Monet, and also returned frequently to his native Holland until 1869. He stopped exhibiting at the Salon in 1873, however, and the following year turned down an invitation to take part in the first Impressionist exhibition.
Provenance
The Dupuy d’Angeac family
Hector Brame, Paris
By descent to Paul-Louis Brame, by 1958.
Hector Brame, Paris
By descent to Paul-Louis Brame, by 1958.
Literature
Adolphe Stein et al, Jongkind. Catalogue critique de l’oeuvre: Peintures, Vol.I, Paris, 2003, p.47, fig.35.
Exhibition
Paris, Musée national d’art moderne, De l’Impressionisme a nos jours: aquarelles pastels gouaches, 1958, no.102 (lent by P. Brame, incorrectly dated 1875).
