Landscape Near Cava (formerly Described as Being Auvergne)

Sold to Toledo Museum

Medium: Oil On Paper
Size: 35 x 48.5 cm (13.8 x 19.1 in)
Signature: Stamped with the artist’s monogram, M, lower right; inscribed on the reverse: Auvergne

Provenance: Private Collection, France

Literature: P. Caillau-Lamico, Achille Etna Michallon, in Pierre Miquel, Le paysage français au XIXe siècle, Éditions de la Martinelle, 1975, volume II, described and reproduced p. 78.
Achille Etna Michallon, Vincent Pomarède, Museé du Louvre, Paris, Edition de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1994, cat. No. 85, p. 183.
Achille Etna Michallon, catalogue de l’œuvre peint, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, October 1997, described and reproduced as no. 89, p. 140.

Michallon was a student of David’s, of Jean-Victor Bertin, and above all of Pierre Henri de Valenciennes. Precocious, Michallon exhibited for the first time at the Salon of 1812, at the age of only 16. In 1817 he was the first recipient of the Grand Prix de Rome given for an historical landscape with his Démocrite et les Abdéritains; a prize that was established in that year in honor of Valenciennes. After three years at the Academy in Rome and traveling in Italy, Michalllon returned to France in 1821. Michallon was an exact contemporary of Corot, who was much influenced by him and in later years Corot recognized his debt to Michallon. Sadly, Michallon developed pneumonia and died prematurely in September 1822. In his tragically short career Michallon revitalized the paysage historique, invigorating it with a free style and an almost romantic theatricality.

The painting here was no doubt produced during the summer of 1814, when Michallon travel to Auvergne with the L’Espine family. During a stop in Vichy the family met the Duchess of Angoulême, recently returned from exile; Michallon executed a series of small paintings of her in the company of the L’Espine family, though the series whereabouts today is unknown. Also lost to us are all but a handful of Michallon’s sketches from Auvergne. The diversity of the region’s views moved Michallon and the artist is recorded as having done numerous studies on the trip. However, besides the sketch here, only two other oil on paper sketches are recorded, Vue prise en Auvergne d’une rivière coolant sous des arbes au pied d’un rocher (36 x 50 cm., location unknown) and the related Vue d’une cascade en Auvergne (49 x 38 cm., location unknown; both were recorded in the collection of Louis Philippe before their disappearance in February 1848.

Original frame with the label cadre Haro