Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 83. Michel Dumas Lyon 1812 – 1885 Lyon Fontanile in the Roman Campagna, c. 1838-1840 Michel Dumas trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, and moved to Paris in 1834 to join the studio of Ingres shortly before the master left to take up the post of director of the French Academy in Rome. Dumas would eventually join Ingres in Rome in 1838, after working on the decoration of the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette church in Paris. Upon his arrival in Italy he met the landscape painter Paul Flandrin (1811–1902), who became his guide in Rome and the surrounding countryside. This sketch by Dumas was painted near Acquatraversa in Lazio and, despite its small size, is executed with great care. The unusual panoramic format and low-angle viewpoint accentuate the elongated shape of the fountain. The blue of the sky occupies only a slither of the composition, and the trickle of water at lower left irrigates the arid land and colours it with luminous green. After spending 14 years in Rome, he returned to France to continue his career as a painter of sacred art and was appointed director of the Beaux-Arts in Lyon.
Michel Dumas trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, and moved to Paris in 1834 to join the studio of Ingres shortly before the master left to take up the post of director of the French Academy in Rome. Dumas would eventually join Ingres in Rome in 1838, after working on the decoration of the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette church in Paris. Upon his arrival in Italy he met the landscape painter Paul Flandrin (1811–1902), who became his guide in Rome and the surrounding countryside. This sketch by Dumas was painted near Acquatraversa in Lazio and, despite its small size, is executed with great care. The unusual panoramic format and low-angle viewpoint accentuate the elongated shape of the fountain. The blue of the sky occupies only a slither of the composition, and the trickle of water at lower left irrigates the arid land and colours it with luminous green. After spending 14 years in Rome, he returned to France to continue his career as a painter of sacred art and was appointed director of the Beaux-Arts in Lyon.