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Narcisse Virgilio Díaz de la Peña
FORET DE FONTAINEBLEAU 19th C French Barbizon small oil pntg signed & published

circa 1850

$18,500
£13,735.27
€16,005.36
CA$25,683.98
A$28,729.14
CHF 14,950.81
MX$353,665.52
NOK 190,205.34
SEK 178,450.10
DKK 119,415.98
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About the Item

Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Pena French, 1807-1876 Clairiere et Mare aux Viperes, Foret de Fontainebleau Oil on panel 7 1⁄4 x 10 1⁄2 inches (18.5 x 26.5 cm) 13 x 16 ½ inches (33 x 42 cm) Signed lower right: N. Diaz Provenance: Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 4 March 1920, lot 38 Kapferer pere collection (sale: 26 February 1929) Tempelaere collection; Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox Private Collection, USA Exhibited: London, Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, May 1960, no. 14 Literature: Pierre & Rolande Miquel, Narcisse Diaz de la Pena: catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 2006, vol. II, p. 38, no. 224, catalogued & illustrated Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña was born in 1807 in Bordeaux, France. Upon the death of his parents, who were Spanish political refugees of the Peninsular Wars, he entered the household of a pastor in Bellevue, near Paris. At thirteen, he suffered from an infection caused by an insect sting or snakebite necessitating the amputation of his left leg. Nevertheless, his artistic career was active and prolific. In 1823 Diaz was apprenticed as a colorist in Arsene Gillet’s Paris porcelain factory where he met Gillet’s nephew, the painter Jules Dupré, who became a lifelong friend. He also befriended the artists Auguste Raffet, Louis Cabat, and Constant Troyon. In the late 1820s he left his apprenticeship and embarked on a course of independent study, including old masters and the contemporary Neo-classicists in the Louvre, and came under the tutelage of Francois Souchon. Also at this time, he developed friendships with Honore Daumier, Theodore Rousseau, and Paul Huet. Diaz exhibited at the Salon from 1831 and also began to spend much time in the Forest of Fontainebleau forming close associations with the other landscape painters of what came to be known as the Barbizon School. His studies of the forest were painted with a characteristic speed and fluency, giving him a reputation for productivity and commercial success. Awarded a first-class medal at the Salon of 1848, Diaz was appointed chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1851. After 1859, Diaz ceased to exhibit at the Salon. In his later years he lived in Barbizon and concentrated on dramatically charged and realistically rendered landscapes. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, he sought refuge in Brussels. He died in 1876, aged sixty-eight, at the Mediterranean resort of Mentone. Our painting, Clairiere et Mare aux Viperes, Foret de Fontainebleau, is a charming landscape characteristic of the Barbizon style. A vast blue sky, nearly hidden by billowy clouds, dominates much of the composition. It is the verdant Forest of Fontainebleau however that captures our attention, rich in color of warm yellows and greens. In the foreground is a crisp pond reflecting the scene; the lush green trees and central blue patch of the sky. In a clearing between the trees is a figure dressed in red, rendered diminuitive by the vastness of the composition and the sheer beauty of the landscape.

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