Théodore Gudin (Paris 1802 - 1880 Boulogne-Billancourt) - Lot 124

Théodore Gudin (Paris 1802 - 1880 Boulogne-Billancourt) Grenoble: View of the Isère River from the Right Bank, with the Tour de l'Isle, the Wooden Bridge, and in the Distance, the Bell Tower of the Collegiate Church of Saint-André Oil on paper, mounted on canvas 38.7 x 62 cm. On the back, a red wax stamp, probably dating from the mid-19th century. Related work : - Gudin, Vue de Grenoble, circa 1825, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 38 x 62 cm, signed, Paris, Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes - Gudin, Vue de Grenoble, circa 1826, oil on canvas, 75 x 127 cm, signed and dated 1826, exhibited at the 1827 Salon, Sotheby's Amsterdam sale, April 19, 2005, lot 129 (under the title "Town by a river"); private collection, present location unknown - I.-L. Deroy, after Gudin, Vue de Grenoble, c. 1830, lithograph in J. Vatout and J.-P. Quénot, Galerie lithographiée de Son Altesse royale Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans, Paris, 1830, vol. 1 The view offered by the capital of Dauphiné to travelers returning from Italy must have been highly picturesque for Romantic-era plein-air landscape artists, as several of them depicted it: Louis-Etienne Watelet, Charles Jean Guérard, Gudin. We know of another study on paper, in the same format, in the artist's own hand, featuring the same panorama and anecdotal details (boats, clouds, figures). The final painting had an interesting history: in reaction to the siege of Missolonghi, which was supposed to have suppressed Greek aspirations to independence, the young guard of the art world organized an exhibition in Paris at the Galerie Lebrun, in their support. It featured this "Vue de Grenoble" (no. 105), along with four other works by Gudin. Presumably acquired by the Duc d'Orléans, this view, engraved by Deroy, appears in the album of his "Galerie lithographiée" published in 1830.