Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 150. Eugène Isabey, attributed to Paris 1803 – 1886 Montévrain, Seine-et-Marne Ruins of the Théâtre-Italien after the Fire of 1838, 1839 This painting has tentatively been attributed to Isabey on stylistic grounds. Though the paint is rather thin in the sky and clouds, it has a lot of structure throughout and is applied in a manner reminiscent of the artist’s landscapes and city views. The assured way with which the paint is used for highlights and the long brushstrokes are also characteristic of his work. The Théâtre-Italien, also known as the Salle Favart, was designed by the architect Jean-François Heurtier (1739–1822) and inaugurated in the presence of Marie Antoinette in 1783. A fire caused by a fault in the heating system destroyed the building on the night of 13 to 14 January 1838, after a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Our painting is dated 1839 on a rock at lower left, a year after the catastrophe. These are very much modern ruins, however the point of view selected by the artist plays with associations to antiquity. He shows the motif from up close, paying careful attention to the way the sunlight falls on the neoclassical columns.
This painting has tentatively been attributed to Isabey on stylistic grounds. Though the paint is rather thin in the sky and clouds, it has a lot of structure throughout and is applied in a manner reminiscent of the artist’s landscapes and city views. The assured way with which the paint is used for highlights and the long brushstrokes are also characteristic of his work. The Théâtre-Italien, also known as the Salle Favart, was designed by the architect Jean-François Heurtier (1739–1822) and inaugurated in the presence of Marie Antoinette in 1783. A fire caused by a fault in the heating system destroyed the building on the night of 13 to 14 January 1838, after a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Our painting is dated 1839 on a rock at lower left, a year after the catastrophe. These are very much modern ruins, however the point of view selected by the artist plays with associations to antiquity. He shows the motif from up close, paying careful attention to the way the sunlight falls on the neoclassical columns.