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Antoine Melling
View of the surroundings of Saint-Cloud from Meudon near Paris in France

1819

$53,652.83
£39,748.70
€45,000
CA$73,501.70
A$81,556.33
CHF 42,720.96
MX$1,000,099.57
NOK 543,395.91
SEK 512,942.56
DKK 342,305.08
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About the Item

Antoine-Ignace MELLING (1763 Karlsruhe - 1831 Paris) View of the surroundings of Saint-Cloud from the terrace of Bellevue in Meudon Watercolor and gouache H. 62.5 cm; W. 93.5 cm Signed and dated lower left - 1819 Exhibition: Salon of 1819, number 814, titled View of the surroundings of Saint-Cloud, taken on the heights of Bellevue Provenance: Probably Drouot, sale of February 1, 1895, Room 10, Old Master and Modern Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Pastels, CP Paul Chevallier, Expert Féral, catalog number 132, titled View of the surroundings of Saint-Cloud, watercolor This superb gouache has come down to us in an astonishing and rare state of freshness, with its original frame and glass. We find the green/blue palette often used by Melling, as well as a quite remarkable precision in the details of the vegetation and buildings, and an excellent topographical accuracy. The artist is posted on the Bellevue plateau, on the heights of Meudon. On the left we recognize the park of Saint-Cloud, with the lantern of Demosthenes (built in 1801 and which will be destroyed by the Prussians in 1870) and the Balustrade alley, the Pavillon de Breteuil, and below, a building of the Sèvres porcelain factory. A little further in the background, the town of Saint-Cloud and its bridge over the Seine, then Mont Valérien (with at its summit the building built by Napoleon from 1811 and intended for the orphans of the Legion of Honor). In the distance, towards the center, one can even make out the hill of Sannois with the silhouettes of its three mills, and on the banks of the Seine, what appears to be the Château d'Asnières. To the right of the Pont de Saint-Cloud, the buildings of the village of Boulogne are quite detailed. After spending his youth in Strasbourg, then studying architecture and mathematics in Klagenfurt, Melling left in 1782 to discover Italy and Egypt, before settling in Constantinople in 1784 as a member of the Russian ambassador's entourage, a city where he would remain until 1802. During these eighteen years, he learned Turkish, immersed himself in local life, and became the draftsman and architect for Sultana Hadidge, sister of Grand Seigneur Selim III; he produced numerous views, often panoramic, of the city and the Bosphorus, as well as festive events. His arrival in Paris in 1802 coincided with his plan to create an album of these Ottoman views, which would not be published until 1819, under the title Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore, comprising 48 engraved plates. In Paris, Melling became a landscape painter in the service of Empress Josephine, who also acquired the first "French" work that the artist exhibited at the 1808 Salon, a view of Paris taken from the hill of Chaillot, now housed at Arenenberg. At the 1819 Salon, Melling, having become "landscape painter to the King's chamber and cabinet," exhibited other watercolors of similar dimensions to this one, commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1817, and depicting Gosfield and Hartwell Castles, places occupied by Louis XVIII during his exile in England. Both works were hung in the Tuileries Palace. At the 1812 Salon, the artist had already exhibited views of the Paris area (Château de Ris, Château de Pierrefonds, etc.), notably of Saint-Cloud from the Duke of Bassano's country house in Meudon. Here again, the dimensions were similar to those of our work. Reviving his status as a traveling artist (Constantinople, Holland in 1812, French departments in 1815, England in 1817), Melling traveled to the Pyrenees in 1821 at the request of the French government, and published an album about this stay. Melling was notably collected by Murat and Queen Hortense (who commissioned two views of Holland from him in 1812, exhibited at the 1814 Salon, and later acquired by Paul Marmottan and donated to the Valenciennes Museum in 1896). In an article (Bulletin of the Historical and Archaeological Society of the 8th Arrondissement of Paris, 1917-1919) devoted to Murat's painting gallery (which owned at least five gouaches by Melling) at the Élysée Palace, Marmottan mentions his "views of Paris of an extreme, unsurpassed finesse of perspective... an excellent translator of nature, although a little meticulous." A Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1825, he had a daughter, Adèle (1799-1876), born in Constantinople, who had a successful career as a draughtsman, collaborating on her father's works from a very young age. She exhibited at the Salon from 1824 under the name Clerget-Melling, following her marriage in 1819 to a customs collector.
  • Creator:
    Antoine Melling (1763 - 1861, French, German)
  • Creation Year:
    1819
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 24.61 in (62.5 cm)Diameter: 36.82 in (93.5 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    BELEYMAS, FR
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1857216621132

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