Lines and Colors art blog

The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Whitney Collection, 1785-1850

The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Whitney Collection: Charles-Marie Bouton, Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny, [unknown], Simon Denis, Adrien Dauzats, Camille Corot, Charles Rémond
The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Whitney Collection, 1785-1850 is the title of an exhibition currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

It includes works by well known and lesser known artists from the period.

Though I haven’t been able to see the show, I have seen some of the works from the permanent collection, like the fascinating painting Gothic Chapel by Charles-Marie Bouton (images above, top, with detail).

For those of us who can’t get to the show easily, whether for geographic or meteorological reasons, the images in the museum’s online gallery of works in the show are linked to the regular entries for each work on the site.

These include wonderful high-resolution images. (On the detail page for each work, click on “Fullscreen” under the image and then choose Zoom or use the Download arrow.)

The show runs until April 21, 2013.

(Images above: Charles-Marie Bouton, Théodore Caruelle d’Aligny, [unknown], Simon Denis, Adrien Dauzats, Camille Corot, Charles Rémond)


Comments

5 responses to “The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Whitney Collection, 1785-1850”

  1. I’m learning quite a lot about classics. Thanks for writting this blog!.

  2. How in the world does one resist putting something, figure etc.n in that first painting. It is beautiful but needs a narrative.

    1. I know what you mean; it does feel strongly like a background for a story.

      When I was standing in front of it in the museum, even though the painting isn’t large, I had a strong feeling that I was being invited to walk into it (either wisely or unwisely). Perhaps the viewer is the character in the narrative.

  3. The Bouton is striking and is damn near contemporary in look, in my op. I had supposed the light was the focus of the scene and also as Charley put it, an invite and a sort of ambiguous one at that. The artist used a restraint not common for the era as I imagine not having traditional C.o.I. could be problematic.Now the second, the D’Aligny to me is in desperate need of balance…or something, but that is my left side hemisphere at work again! These are the kinds of jewels I like to find/see in galleries, thanks for the post.

  4. Daguerre was a landscape painter as well?!