Edma Morisot-Pontillon

19th century painting Landscape

Circa 1865

Pierre Ernest BALLUE (1855-1928) Landscape From french countryside Paysage de la creuse written on the reverse Oil on canvas signed low right Old Frame gilded with Leaves Dim canvas : 60 X 81 cm Dim Frame : 82 X 104 cm BALLUE Pierre...

CORTES Antonio (1827-1908) Cows to pasture Oil on canvas signed lower left Old frame gilded with leaves Dim canvas : 54 X 65 cm Dim frame: 70 x 86 cm...

"Landscape with White Birch," is a pastoral New England Landscape painted in the Barbizon style by historic woman artist Agnes Bartlett Brown (American, 1847-1932). Painted in oil on board the painting measures 13.63 x 10.25 inches, and is signed on the verso. The work is framed in an elegant, period appropriate frame and is ready to hang. Agnes Brown and her husband, the landscape painter John Appleton Brown (1844-1902), made a formidable artistic pair. The two traveled and painted together constantly, beginning in 1874 with an extended trip to France where they were exposed to the Barbizon painting of Camille Corot (1796-1875) and his contemporaries. The couple returned to the United States the following year, where they settled in Boston. In the company of such American Barbizon painters as William Morris Hunt and Joseph Foxcroft Cole, the Browns honed their pastoral renderings of the New England landscape. As the wife of a well-respected painter, Agnes Brown benefited from her husband’s reputation, encouragement, and lifestyle. However these same privileges tend to obfuscate Agnes Brown’s independent legacy in the historical record as a painter in her own right. While Agnes Brown is rarely considered outside of the context of her husband, however, her paintings retain significant authority on their own. Landscape with White Birch, for example, carries weight as a stand-alone vignette. In Brown’s choice of an arched frame and use of expressive brush strokes to render surprising detail, this pastoral summer scene of a New England landscape ranks among those of her husband and other predominantly male members of the American Barbizon school.

The dark and smokey palette of Grez-sur-Loing reflects the influence of the French Barbizon School on Winkworth Allan Gay's painting style. It seems reasonable to assume that he pain...