Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 5. Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont Versailles 1790 – 1870 Paris Views of the Pyrenees Sarazin de Belmont is exceptional among the women artists of her time in devoting herself to landscape. Barred from attending the École des Beaux-Arts because of her gender, she trained in the private studio of Valenciennes, displaying her talent for the genre from an early age. She exhibited at the Salon from 1812 to 1868, and would eventually open her own teaching studio in Paris. A remarkably independent spirit, she travelled widely to paint in the open air, often in remote locations. Sarazin de Belmont lived and worked in Italy between 1824-26, and again between 1841-65. She painted in Germany, Switzerland and all throughout her native France, being among the first artists to paint in the Pyrenees, where this group of studies was made. She undertook numerous sketching trips to the region between 1828-35, and even rented a humble shepherd’s cottage where she lived alone for three months to paint “sur nature” – a bold and unseemly attitude for a woman of her time. This group of nine studies shows a high degree of finish and was probably reworked in the studio in order to be saleable in the custom-made frame where they are carefully arranged.
Sarazin de Belmont is exceptional among the women artists of her time in devoting herself to landscape. Barred from attending the École des Beaux-Arts because of her gender, she trained in the private studio of Valenciennes, displaying her talent for the genre from an early age. She exhibited at the Salon from 1812 to 1868, and would eventually open her own teaching studio in Paris. A remarkably independent spirit, she travelled widely to paint in the open air, often in remote locations. Sarazin de Belmont lived and worked in Italy between 1824-26, and again between 1841-65. She painted in Germany, Switzerland and all throughout her native France, being among the first artists to paint in the Pyrenees, where this group of studies was made. She undertook numerous sketching trips to the region between 1828-35, and even rented a humble shepherd’s cottage where she lived alone for three months to paint “sur nature” – a bold and unseemly attitude for a woman of her time. This group of nine studies shows a high degree of finish and was probably reworked in the studio in order to be saleable in the custom-made frame where they are carefully arranged.