Fontainebleau. Baron Henri de Triqueti (1803-74). © Musée Girodet.
Fontainebleau was a popular spot for the artists of this time. Triqueti's son, Edward (1840-1861), has one piece of work in the British Museum (Museum number 2019,7015.685) — a very accomplished paper and pencil portrait of his cousin Edward Poynter, dated and signed (with initials) "Fontainebleau March '58." He would have been in his teens then, and it seems likely that his father would have been there too, especially if other members of the extended family were there. But this, of course, might have been one of many visits.
Patricia Mainardi has written about the rise of more naturalistic landscape art in nineteenth-century France, and here Triqueti Snr. seems to have been trying his hand, with some success, at this increasingly popular trend. Trees, says Mainardi, were now taking on on "new significance as carriers of form," and that certainly seems true of this composition, in which various different species largely screen a residence beyond a clearing. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Mainardi, Patricia. "Learning to Draw Landscape in Nineteenth-Century France." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide. Vol. 21, Issue 2 (Summer 2022). Web. 7 July 2023.
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Created 7 July 2023