Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 12. Simon Denis Antwerp 1755 – 1813 Naples Trees in Front of a Valley “One becomes very small and modest when one understands Nature.”1 The remarkable scale of this tree study evokes the reverence towards nature described by Simon Denis in his undated manuscript preserved in the Fondation Custodia. An early practitioner of plein air painting, the Flemish artist settled in Italy in 1786, living first in Rome and then in Naples. He produced a large number of nature studies in oils, which he numbered and categorized according to motif (water, skies, vegetation, rocks, panoramas). Back in his studio, Denis used elements from these studies to compose his monumental neoclassical views of the Italian landscape. The traditional use of trees as a repoussoir may have instigated the composition of this close-up view of a tree, cropped along the top. Rendered with great care, the foliage turns golden in the sunlight and is silhouetted against an indistinct blue-grey background, which is revealed to be a mountainous valley by glimpses of blue sky. The canvas was painted before being attached to a stretcher, and pinholes in the corners suggest it was tacked to a flat surface. 1“On devient bien petit et modeste quand on comprens la Nature”, letter of Simon Denis, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. no. 2000-A.77.
“One becomes very small and modest when one understands Nature.”1 The remarkable scale of this tree study evokes the reverence towards nature described by Simon Denis in his undated manuscript preserved in the Fondation Custodia. An early practitioner of plein air painting, the Flemish artist settled in Italy in 1786, living first in Rome and then in Naples. He produced a large number of nature studies in oils, which he numbered and categorized according to motif (water, skies, vegetation, rocks, panoramas). Back in his studio, Denis used elements from these studies to compose his monumental neoclassical views of the Italian landscape. The traditional use of trees as a repoussoir may have instigated the composition of this close-up view of a tree, cropped along the top. Rendered with great care, the foliage turns golden in the sunlight and is silhouetted against an indistinct blue-grey background, which is revealed to be a mountainous valley by glimpses of blue sky. The canvas was painted before being attached to a stretcher, and pinholes in the corners suggest it was tacked to a flat surface. 1“On devient bien petit et modeste quand on comprens la Nature”, letter of Simon Denis, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. no. 2000-A.77.