Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 156. Théophile-Narcisse Chauvel Paris 1831 – 1909 Paris View of Roofs and Gardens (Paris?) Théophile-Narcisse Chauvel is mostly remembered as a printmaker, and found great success during his lifetime with reproductive etchings after the work of artists of the Barbizon school, most notably Corot and Rousseau. Chauvel began sketching in the forest of Fontainebleau when he was eighteen years old, closely following the advice of his teacher Caruelle d’Aligny (cat. 3). He joined the École des Beaux-Arts in 1854, coming in second that same year in the Prix de Rome for historical landscape. From 1859, however, he mostly dedicated himself to the graphicarts. Chauvel was also an amateur photographer, and amassed an interesting collection of photographs which he used as models for his works (now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris). In its unusual composition, this oil study painted from a window or balcony betrays the influence of photography. Tightly cropped, it completely omits the sky, producing a dense space filled with slate-coloured rooftops and lush vegetation.
Théophile-Narcisse Chauvel is mostly remembered as a printmaker, and found great success during his lifetime with reproductive etchings after the work of artists of the Barbizon school, most notably Corot and Rousseau. Chauvel began sketching in the forest of Fontainebleau when he was eighteen years old, closely following the advice of his teacher Caruelle d’Aligny (cat. 3). He joined the École des Beaux-Arts in 1854, coming in second that same year in the Prix de Rome for historical landscape. From 1859, however, he mostly dedicated himself to the graphicarts. Chauvel was also an amateur photographer, and amassed an interesting collection of photographs which he used as models for his works (now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris). In its unusual composition, this oil study painted from a window or balcony betrays the influence of photography. Tightly cropped, it completely omits the sky, producing a dense space filled with slate-coloured rooftops and lush vegetation.