notes on daubigny's early chronology

Notes on Daubigny's Early ChronologyAuthor(s): Albert BoimeSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jun., 1970), pp. 188-191Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048708 .

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Notes on Daubigny's Early Chronology*

ALBERT BOIME

Robert L. Herbert's critical study of 1962, Barbizon Revisited, en-

couraged a sweeping reassessment of the generally neglected painters identified with the Barbizon School.1 Of these, none has been so

consistently ignored as Daubigny-a surprising fact in view of his

profound influence on later developments in landscape painting.2 Herbert pointed to the gap in our knowledge of Daubigny's early

period, and in 1964 Jerrold Lanes expressed hope for the discovery of new documents that would clarify Daubigny's troublesome chro-

nology.3 My investigations of French academic art have turned up four documents which may contribute to such a clarification by

shedding light on Daubigny's early career. This new information

modifies considerably the standard accounts and helps to explain the strong Italianate strain in his initial phase. In the late forties and

early fifties Daubigny switched from an Italian to a Dutch mode, from grand and impressive scenes to the depiction of humbler as-

pects of the countryside.4 However, until the end of his career, he

retained the classicizing features of historic landscape painting, which most critics ascribed to his early experience. Yet these critics

rarely account for Daubigny's conservative tendency, other than in

passing reference to his trip to Italy in 1836.

Daubigny's active participation in the academic curriculum is the

most significant fact emerging from the new evidence. Until now, we have been given the impression that he disavowed any serious

academic interest.5 Later writers simply followed the lead of Dau-

bigny's close friend, Henriet, who recounted that Daubigny enter-

tained the idea of attempting the Prix-de-Rome for landscape paint-

ing in 1841, and six months prior to the contest deviously enrolled

in the atelier of Delaroche to gain the master's influential support.6

Daubigny entered the contest and succeeded in passing the preliminary trials, but then failed to present himself properly on the day of the definitive contest and was disqualified.7 Henriet and later biographers assert that at this point in 1841, Daubigny abandoned his

pretensions to an academic career.8 But since Henriet also claimed that Daubigny first decided to pursue such a career following the success of his classicizing St. Jerome in the Desert in the 1840 Sa-

lon (text fig. 1), the assumption is that Daubigny's academic period lasted approximately one year.9

In fact, however, Daubigny's involvement in the academic curriculum began much earlier, in the thirties, and remained uninter-

rupted through the 1841 contest. The registers of the tcole des Beaux-Arts show that, in addition to this competition, Daubigny entered the landscape Prix-de-Rome in 1837.10 At that time, he

passed the preliminary sketch trial, but failed in the second heat

known as the "concours de l'arbre.""' He thus did not qualify for

the definitive contest.12 For the 1837 attempt Daubigny registered himself as a pupil of Senties, a successful academic master giving private instruction.'3 Senties felt a deep affection for Poussin and had copied the Shepherds in Arcady.14 Daubigny's relationship with

this master began at least two years prior to the 1837 contest; he

registered as Senties' pupil on January 13, 1835, for permission to

copy in the Louvre.15 Curiously, Senties was never mentioned by

Daubigny's biographers, perhaps because Daubigny himself never

admitted this relationship. But the St. Jerome of 1840, with its remi-

niscences of Titian, Poussin and Salvator Rosa, was the fruit of

Daubigny's apprenticeship with Senties and an active participation in the academic curriculum. This further indicates that his subse-

* I am grateful to the following persons for permission to examine the archives of their respective institutions: Mme. W. Bouleau-Rabaud, Conservateur de la Bibliotheque de l'tcole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, M. R. Cassanas, Secretaire-General de l'tcole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, M. J. Bourcier, Secretaire de l'Acad6mie des Beaux-Arts and Mme. Y. Coutan of the Archives du Louvre. 1 R. L. Herbert, Barbizon Revisited, Boston, 1962; Herbert, "Millet Re-

visited," Burlington Magazine, 104, 1962, 294f., 377f.; G. Nordland, "A Return Ticket to Barbizon," Arts, 37, 1963, 24f.; J. Lanes, "Dau- bigny Revisited," Burlington Magazine, 106, 1964, 457f.

2 Lanes, "Daubigny," 457. 3 Herbert, Barbizon Revisited, 35; Lanes, "Daubigny," 458. 4 Herbert, Barbizon Revisited, 47. 5 F. Henriet, C. Daubigny et son oeuvre grave, Paris, 1875, 25-26; J.

Laran, Daubigny, Paris, n.d. [1912], 23-24; E. Moreau-Nelaton, Dau-

bigny raconte par lui-meme, Paris, 1925, 31-32. 6 Henriet, Daubigny, 23-24. 7 Henriet, Daubigny, 25. 8 Henriet, Daubigny, 26; Laran, Daubigny, 24; Moreau-N6laton, Dau-

bigny, 32. 9 Henriet, Daubigny, 23.

10 Archives de l'lcole des Beaux-Arts, Peinture et Sculpture. Jugements. Extraits, Feb. 1837-Aug. 1874, "Grand Prix de Paysage Historique," judgment of April 8, 1837. Daubigny placed eleventh in the preliminary compositional sketch trial. Henriet also erred in placing Daubi- gny as third in the second of two preliminary trials in 1841; in fact,

he made fourth place in the second heat, sixth in the first. Undoubt-

edly, Daubigny's memory failed him when he recounted the original episode to Henriet. See Jugements. Extraits, judgments of April 3, 24, 1841; also Henriet, Daubigny, 25.

11 Jugements. Extraits, judgment of April 22, 1837. 12 Entrance to the definitive contest required placement in both prelimi-

nary trials. See Recueil des reglements relatifs aux concours ouverts et aux grands prix dicernes par l'Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1821, 36: "L'admission au concours de paysage est precede de deux concours d'essai."

13 Jugements. Extraits, judgment of April 8, 1837. Pierre Asthasie Theo- dore Senties (1801-?) matriculated at the tcole des Beaux-Arts as a

pupil of Baron Gros in 1817. While never capturing the Prix-de-Rome, he did succeed in winning several of the minor prizes at the tcole. See C. Gabet, Dictionnaire des artistes de l'ccole franCaise au XIXe siecle, Paris, 1831, 630-31. I have studied Senties' work at the lcole and found him quite original in his thinking about technique and lighting effects. See his Demi-figure peinte of 1823 and his sketch Tarquin tue par les Marcius of 1825 in the archives of the tcole. Perhaps Daubi- gny's father, who had studied at the tlcole contemporaneously with Senties, recommended the master to his son.

14 Gabet, Dictionnaire, 630. 15 Archives du Louvre, Registre des cartes d'6llves, 1834-1840, No. 795.

Daubigny was then living at his paternal residence, 54 Vieille Rue du Temple.



DAUBIGNY 189

quent enrollment in Delaroche's studio was not simply tactical;

Daubigny's deep aspirations for academic success led him to seek out a more effective master.16

In an effort to finance his academic training, Daubigny had worked at several odd jobs early in life.'7 A document discovered in the Archives Nationales shows that we may now include among these sundry jobs his position as a restorer of paintings in the Louvre. The document is a mandate of payment made out to Dau-

bigny on May 14, 1834, for his services in the Louvre.s1 The mandate covers the first quarter of the year and is signed by Granet, then Curator of Paintings.19 But all of Daubigny's biographers assert that Daubigny took the position at the Louvre after his return from Italy-probably sometime in 1837.20 While Laran and

Moreau-N6laton corrected Henriet's date for the Italian voyage from 1835 to 1836, all three agree that the job at the Louvre followed the return to Paris. Since no later mandate for Daubigny could be traced, and because he was fired by Granet, it is unlikely that Daubigny held the position more than once.21 Thus, Daubi-

gny's biographers may be disregarded: as early as 1834, then, when

only severiteen, he began supporting himself and accumulating the

necessary capital to finance his academic career. In 1835 he entered the studio of Senties and began preparing for the quadrennial land-

scape contest of 1837. Indeed, since the trip to Italy falls between his enrollment with Senties and his participation in the contest, it is

probable that Senties himself encouraged the trip as suitable preparation. When Daubigny returned from Italy early in 1837, he re- sumed his studies with the master and entered the competition in

April of that year. From 1837 to 1841 Daubigny's works still show a marked Italian

influence, undoubtedly sustained by his desire to take part in the 1841 contest. But his work continued to betray features of classical

landscape painting through the mid-forties. A change begins to

Fig. 1. C.-F. Daubigny, etching after his painting, Saint Jerome in the

Desert, 1840 (reproduced in L. Delteil, Le peintre-graveur, illustr', xiii, Paris, 1921, No. 11)

appear in 1846-which, however, does not become permanent until the early fifties-when he demonstrates an interest in an extended horizon line combined with an unencumbered sky.22 On August 11, 1848, Daubigny sent a letter to the Beaux-Arts administration ask-

ing for a commission to etch a "suite de planches d'apres Ruysdael ou Claude de Lorrain."23 While shifting his interest in part to the Dutch mode (and a noble form at that), he still thought in terms of the classical ideal. As late as November, 1849, Daubigny wrote that

16 In his article on Daubigny written in the fifties, Henriet was more sympathetic toward the relationship between Delaroche and Daubi- gny. See Henriet, "Daubigny," L'Artiste, 1, 1857, 196. That Daubigny felt a deep affection for the academic master is shown by the fact that he signed himself a pupil of Delaroche for the Salons until the end of his career. Daubigny had good reason to study with Delaroche; in 1837 Delaroche's pupil Buttura won the landscape contest, and in general the master had a good reputation among the landscape aspirants. Delaroche loved landscape painting and had himself entered the first landscape contest held in 1817. He encouraged his pupils who showed aptitude in this field and he had the entire studio make periodic visits to the countryside for outdoor sketching. See J. Laurens, La Ihgende des ateliers, Paris, 1901, 393; H. T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists, New York, 1867, 508; C. Moreau-Vauthier, Gir6me, Paris, 1906, 44.

17 Henriet, Daubigny et son oeuvre grave, 9-10. 18 Paris, Archives Nationales, 0' 1524, Mandat de payement. Musees

Royaux, dated May 14, 1834: "Designation de la partie prenante: M. Daubigny, restaurateur des tableaux. Vieille rue du Temple N' 54. Objet du payement: Seances employees a la restauration des tableaux du Musee pendant le ler trimestre 1834. .. ." Daubigny was appar- ently paid for piecework, and there follows a list of 16th and 17th century portraits of French royalty that he retouched in January, Feb- ruary and March of 1834.

19 Francois-Marius Granet (1775-1849), a remarkable landscapist in his own right, became Conservateur Adjoint in 1824 through the influence of his fellow townsman from Aix, the Comte de Forbin, Direc-

teur-General of the Musees Royaux, and subsequently was appointed Conservateur des Tableaux upon the death of Charles Landon in 1826. See Aix-en-Provence, Musee Arbaud, Ms 028, typewritten transcrip- tion of F.-M. Granet, "Memoires," n.d., 159.

20 Henriet, Daubigny et son oeuvre grave, 15; Laran, Daubigny, 25; Moreau-Nelaton, Daubigny, 18. The fact that Daubigny worked with Granet prior to the Italian visit may explain certain affinities with the master in a sketch made on this journey. See Laran, Daubigny, 20, pl. 11, Tivoli, and the following painted sketches by Granet in Aix-en- Provence, Musee Granet: Vue de Tivoli, Fabriques de la Rochelli and the Fabrique des Quatre Saints. Granet's fascination with the formal properties of rooftops-a legacy that he also bequeathed to Cezanne -was brilliantly pointed to by Ingres in the background of his por- trait of Granet.

21 Henriet, Daubigny et son oeuvre grave, 15. Daubigny obviously de- tested his work in the Louvre.

22 See L. Delteil, Le peintre-graveur, illustre, xir, Paris, 1921, No. 55, Le petit parc a moutons and passim. While the later etchings and paintings often show atavistic features, the paintings of the early fifties pick up this preference which becomes a recurrent motif throughout the remainder of his career, eg., The Harvest (1851), The Pond of Gylieu, Near Optevoz (1853), Coast Near Villerville (1855), Women Washing Along the Oise (1859), and The Mountain Stream, Cauterets (1873).

23 Archives Nationales, F' 23, Daubigny's letter to the Minister of In- terior, Aug. 11, 1848.



190 The Art Bulletin

Fig. 2. E. F. Buttura, Apollo Guarding the Herds of Admetus, 1837. Paris, Lcole des Beaux-Arts (photo: Giraudon)

the countryside around Cr6mieu recalled to mind the works of "le

Guaspre, Poussin et Salvator."24 Although in the subsequent decade he turned increasingly to the natural sites of the Ile de France-find-

ing inspiration along river banks and in open areas with extended horizons-he never completely abandoned his tie with the classical tradition. The somber gray tonalities and melancholy mood, the

emphasis on panoramic views, the careful adjustment of horizontal and vertical lines, and the silhouetting of the large areas are features that would be retained in these works of the Ile de France and his

subsequent production as well.25 Dorbec observed that Daubigny's most independent and personal pictures bear the stamp of a classical

heritage.26 Indeed, his rigorous emphasis on compositional structure endeared him to the very conservatives who found fault with his

technique, and he was admitted regularly to the Salon.27 We are disposed too much to the idea that Barbizon painters

"overthrew" the classical tradition and that they did so in part out of opposition to Academic despotism. First of all, the general notion that the nineteenth-century French Academy disdained landscape is

misleading and throws the genesis of nineteenth-century landscape painting seriously out of perspective. Far from being opposed to

Fig. 3. F.-H. Lanoue, Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise, 1841. Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts (photo: Giraudon)

this genre, almost all Academicians of the period systematically practiced landscape painting.28 As early as 1817 landscape was con- secrated in the Academy's curriculum in the series of Prix-de-Rome

competitions.29 The establishment of this contest reflected the Acad-

emy's sensitive response to a growing regionalism in France which stimulated nature worship and gave rise to a popular craving for

landscape painting.30 Although held only quadrennially instead of annually, the com-

petition was conducted along the same lines as the Prix-de-Rome for history painting. It consisted of two preliminary trials-the first, an "esquisse de paysage historique," and the second, an "arbre se detachant sur le ciel," and the definitive attempt.31 While the Acad-

emy required the final work to be a setting for a tragic or noble

story, it stipulated that figures be kept small and subordinated to the main lines and masses of the landscape.32 It quite naturally looked to Poussin for its model, although Claude, Gaspar Poussin and Salvator Rosa also provided cherished examples. The preferred mode is exemplified by the winning entries of the 1837 and 1841

competitions (text figs. 2 and 3).33 Daubigny's St. Jerome of 1840 thus reveals its academic pedigree (text fig. 1).

24 Moreau-Nelaton, Daubigny, 53-54. 25 Herbert, Barbizon Revisited, 47-48; Lanes, "Daubigny," 457-58. 26 P. Dorbec, L'art du paysage en France, Paris, 1925, 186-87. 27 See Archives Nationales, Fn 23 and 130. In addition to his success at

the Salon, Daubigny's landscapes were regularly purchased by the Government. His list of official honors is noteworthy: he won a second-class medal in 1848; a first-class medal in 1853; a third-class medal in 1855; first-class medals in 1857, 1859 and 1867. In 1859 he was decorated with the Chevalier de la L6gion d'Honneur, and in 1874 he was promoted to Officier. See J. Claretie, Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains, Paris, 1882-84, I, 282 n.

28 See A. Boime, "Academic Instruction and the Evolution of Nine-

teenth-Century French Painting," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1968, 290f., 324f.

29 H. Delaborde, L'Academie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1891, 186f. 30 Delaborde, L'Academie, 189; J. B. Deperthes, Histoire de l'art du pay-

sage, Paris, 1822, 538-39; P. H. Valenciennes, Elemens de perspective pratique, Paris, 1820, 506f.

31 Recueil des riglements, 36-37. 32 tcole des Beaux-Arts, Reglements, 1797-1864, "Reglement relatif au

concours du Grand Prix de Paysage Historique" [1816]. 33 These works are by Eugene Ferdinand Buttura (1812-52) and F6lix-

Hippolyte Lanoue (1812-72), respectively.



DAUBIGNY 191

Notwithstanding the Academy's conservative taste, its judgments for the contests often reveal a preoccupation with "effect" and the natural qualities of sky and terrain.34 The Academy stressed outdoor study and the winner of the Prix was permitted to use his four

years in Rome making sketching trips to the countryside. His only requirement was to submit an annual envoi as evidence of his prog- ress. Significantly, the first three envois sent to the Academy were to be no more than simple studies from nature, free from the em- bellishments of historical narrative.35 Only the last envoi was re-

quired to be a composition of the "genre historique." Perhaps most important of all, by thus sanctioning and legitimiz-

ing landscape as on a level with history painting, the Academy en-

couraged the aspirations of the growing number of landscapists. Not

surprisingly, the Barbizon painters derived fundamental lessons from the academic curriculum and their personal development

evolved within this framework. The contest's first winner, Michal-

lon, was Corot's most influential teacher, and while there is no evidence that Corot himself entered the contest, he trained his own students for it.36 Th6odore Rousseau and his good friend Charles

Delaberge actively participated in the Academy's program, and both

attempted the landscape competition of 1829.a7 Daubigny's own

father, a landscape painter himself, was among the first to enter the Ecole in preparation for the contest.38 Their relationship to the

Academy underscores this institution's positive contribution to the

development of nineteenth-century landscape painting, and Dau-

bigny's early chronology thus attests to the participation of the

Academy in a changing world.

State University of New York at Stony Brook

34 Reglements, 1797-1864, decision of July 27, 1821: "Le professeur . . . aura soin d'indiquer les donn6es du paysage, la contr6e, le site, I'heure du jour et meme le motif de l'effet, s'il le juge convenable." See also Boime, "Academic Instruction," 313f.

35 Institut de France. Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1835, 108- 09. While the Academy asked for figures and animals in these studies, they were to be taken from the natural site depicted.

36 Jugements. Extraits, judgment of April 3, 1841. In the same trial that Daubigny placed sixth, Corot's pupil Larocque placed eleventh.

37 P. Burty, Notice des 6tudes peintes par M. Theodore Rousseau, Paris, 1867, 7. Rousseau failed to pass the first trial but Delaberge succeeded

in placing tenth. See Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Assemblies des Profes- seurs et Jugements, Feb. 1823-Dec. 1829, judgment of April 4, 1829. In this connection, one might also mention Millet's involvement in the academic curriculum. Although he never attempted the landscape contests, he tried for the coveted Prix-de-Rome for history painting in 1839. He succeeded in placing eighteenth in the preliminary sketch trial, but failed in the second trial and was not admitted to the definitive contest. See Jugements. Extraits, judgment of April 20, 1839; A. Sensier, La vie et l'oeuvre de J.-F. Millet, Paris, 1881, 65-66.

38 Edm&-Frangois Daubigny (1789-1843) was a pupil of the classical landscapist Jean-Victor Bertin.



notes on daubigny's early chronology

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