Terms and conditions of use
Landscape with a clump of trees
(Bosquet d'arbres)
(c. 1844)
Medium
oil on wood panel
Measurements
42.0 × 64.1 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1955
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Théodore Rousseau was a central figure in a group of artists working in rural France in the mid nineteenth century who were drawn to the village of Barbizon in the Forest of Fontainebleau, near Paris. These artists, soon to be known as the Barbizon School, shared a love of painting out of doors, and their interest in landscape painting for its own sake was a relatively recent development in French art. In 1844 Rousseau spent time in Landes on the south-east coast of France, where he painted many intricate views encompassing vast distances of the flat marshlands looking towards the sea, of which Landscape with a clump of trees is a prime example.
Frame: c. nineteenth century, maker unknown, surface not original.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.l.: THRousseau (second u underlined)
Accession Number
3260-4
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Animals Landscapes Nature
Subjects (specific)
cattle grazing areas trees waterholes
Movements
Barbizon School
Provenance
With William Schaus[1] (1821–92) (dealer), New York, sold c. 1881; from whom purchased by Theron R. Butler (d. January 1884); thence by descent to Estate (and daughter Ella Sanders); subsequently included in Theron R. Butler estate sale, American Art Association, New York, 7 January 1910, no. 52, Bosquet d’Arbres; bought by Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1910, stock no. 11972[2]; exhibited Exposition 100 Chefs d’oeuvre, Paris, May 1910, owner Knoedler Galleries; from where purchased by Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings (1861–37), September 1910; his collection, Fort Tryon Hall, New York, until 1926; included in Billings’ sale, Famous Masterpieces of the French Dutch and English Schools the Collection of C. K. G. Billings Esq. from Fort Tryon Hall, American Art Association, New York, 8 January 1926[3]; collection of Eli B. Springs (d. 1934) 1926–34, New York and Charleston; Springs’ estate sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 23 November, 1934; bought by the John Levy Galleries[4]; collection of A. Levinson; exhibited Barbizon School, Hazlitt Gallery, London, May 1955; from where purchased, for the Felton Bequest, 1955.
[1] German-born American William Schaus (1821–92) was head of Goupil & Co., New York branch 1847–52, and founder of the International Art Union. He was a major collector of Barbizon painters and supporter of the burgeoning American art scene. He resigned from Goupil in 1852 (replaced by Michael Knoedler) and began the William Schaus Galleries. Early in 1892, he held a major sale of his stock room. He died later that year. The remainder of his estate and personal art collection was auctioned in 1896. His son, William Jnr (1858–1942), was a renowned entomologist and specialist in Lepidoptera.
[2] See M. Knoedler & Co. records, approximately 1848-1971, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2012.M.54, Series I.A, box 5, Painting stock book 5: 8800-12652, April1899– December 1911, p. 185. This purchase by was reported in the New York Times article ‘Butler Paintings sold for $264,835’, 8 January 1910. Painting and buyer are mentioned.
[3] Reported in the NY Times article, ‘Billings to Sell 31 Great Masters’, 6 December, 1925. Painting is mentioned by name.
[4] Reported in the NY Times, ‘79 Paintings bring $86,665 at auction’, 24 November, 1934, p.13. Painting and buyer are mentioned by name.
Frame
19th century, maker unknown, surface not original