Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 3. Théodore Caruelle d’Aligny Chaumes 1798 – 1871 Lyon Young Man Reclining on the Downs, 1833-1835 Caruelle d’Aligny trained under Louis Étienne Watelet (1780–1866) and Jean-Victor Bertin (1767–1842), both pupils of the celebrated Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. He worked out-of-doors in the outskirts of Paris and the forest of Fontainebleau, and further developed the technique during the five years he lived in Rome between 1822-27. His studies are often compared to those of Camille Corot, as the two undertook numerous trips together to work sur le motif in the Italian countryside. The figure in this study is not engaged in the act of painting, but is nonetheless immersed in the landscape. The casualness of the scene, its pastoral atmosphere and warm light, all invite the viewer to join Caruelle d’Aligny and his reclining companion in the contemplation of nature. It brings to mind the description of the landscape painter’s vocation as outlined by Valenciennes in his Élémens de perspective pratique: “It is the love of the countryside, the desire to contemplate at leisure the spectacle of Nature, and above all the ardent ambition to represent it with accuracy and truth, which have determined our profession.”1 1“C’est l’amour de la campagne, le désir de contempler à loisir le spectacle de la Nature, et surtout l’ardente ambition de la représenter avec justesse et vérité, qui ont déterminé notre profession”, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, Élémens de perspective pratique a l’usage des artistes, suivis de Réflexions et conseils à un élève sur la peinture et particulièrement sur le genre du paysage, Paris, 1799/1800, p. XXIV.
Caruelle d’Aligny trained under Louis Étienne Watelet (1780–1866) and Jean-Victor Bertin (1767–1842), both pupils of the celebrated Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. He worked out-of-doors in the outskirts of Paris and the forest of Fontainebleau, and further developed the technique during the five years he lived in Rome between 1822-27. His studies are often compared to those of Camille Corot, as the two undertook numerous trips together to work sur le motif in the Italian countryside. The figure in this study is not engaged in the act of painting, but is nonetheless immersed in the landscape. The casualness of the scene, its pastoral atmosphere and warm light, all invite the viewer to join Caruelle d’Aligny and his reclining companion in the contemplation of nature. It brings to mind the description of the landscape painter’s vocation as outlined by Valenciennes in his Élémens de perspective pratique: “It is the love of the countryside, the desire to contemplate at leisure the spectacle of Nature, and above all the ardent ambition to represent it with accuracy and truth, which have determined our profession.”1 1“C’est l’amour de la campagne, le désir de contempler à loisir le spectacle de la Nature, et surtout l’ardente ambition de la représenter avec justesse et vérité, qui ont déterminé notre profession”, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, Élémens de perspective pratique a l’usage des artistes, suivis de Réflexions et conseils à un élève sur la peinture et particulièrement sur le genre du paysage, Paris, 1799/1800, p. XXIV.