DOI issue:
Nr. 187 (October 1908)
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: Johann Barthold Jongkind
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20965#0030
Johann Barthold Jon g kind
the Lake of Geneva and Savoy; but this, doubtless,
was no more than a brief excursion. In the latter
part of his life he lived with friends, first at Saint-
Parize-le-Châtel in Nivernais, a country of hard
clean lines which inspired many charming land-
scapes, and later at La Côte Saint André in the
Isère district, where Berlioz was born. There, on
the 9th of February, 1891, died Johann Barthold
Jongkind, ignored in death as in life.
That same year (December 7 and 8) there was
a sale of the works collected in his studio, this
being the first step of the poor unknown in the
path of fame. On the 16th of March, 1893, a
collection of 134 water-colours by Jongkind was
sold at the Hôtel Drouot, and even then the big
collectors had to fight for these delicious luminous
works. In 1902 there were two further sales of his
water-colours, which fetched still higher prices.
Since that date it is seldom that a big sale is held
which does not contain paintings or water-colours
by Jongkind, which formerly were put up in vain,
no bidder being found, but now command high
prices.
To realise exactly the significance and the range
of the Dutch master one must glance at the evolu-
tion of the landscape in France. In the 18th cen-
tury a landscape work was essentially and above
all things a composition landscape. Look at the
works of Claude, of Vernet, of Hubert Robert, of
Fragonard—as a rule they are delightful in colour
and in fancy, but cannot dispense with some
architectural motif. . . . Two artists only there were
who painted landscape as it appeared to their eyes,
without “touching it up” with ruins and other
architectural adornments—Bruandet, who by his
paintings and his water-colours “discovered” the
forest of Fontainebleau, and Louis Gabriel Moreau,
the dazzling water-colourist who was the real pre-
decessor of the Barbizon masters.
In the early years of the 19th century, academic
landscape came back into fashion ; artists of the type
of Fiers, Cabat, Aligny, Bertin, and Watelet, pro-
duced charming studies, but their big pictures were
execrable in their coldness and their factitious com-
position. Then, thanks to the influence of Michel
and Bonington, came a vigorous reaction, and first
with Huet, then with Corot, Millet, Rousseau,
Daubigny, François, and Harpignies, was produced
“honfleor” (water-colour)
(Moreau-Nélaton Collection)
BY J. B. JONGKIND
the Lake of Geneva and Savoy; but this, doubtless,
was no more than a brief excursion. In the latter
part of his life he lived with friends, first at Saint-
Parize-le-Châtel in Nivernais, a country of hard
clean lines which inspired many charming land-
scapes, and later at La Côte Saint André in the
Isère district, where Berlioz was born. There, on
the 9th of February, 1891, died Johann Barthold
Jongkind, ignored in death as in life.
That same year (December 7 and 8) there was
a sale of the works collected in his studio, this
being the first step of the poor unknown in the
path of fame. On the 16th of March, 1893, a
collection of 134 water-colours by Jongkind was
sold at the Hôtel Drouot, and even then the big
collectors had to fight for these delicious luminous
works. In 1902 there were two further sales of his
water-colours, which fetched still higher prices.
Since that date it is seldom that a big sale is held
which does not contain paintings or water-colours
by Jongkind, which formerly were put up in vain,
no bidder being found, but now command high
prices.
To realise exactly the significance and the range
of the Dutch master one must glance at the evolu-
tion of the landscape in France. In the 18th cen-
tury a landscape work was essentially and above
all things a composition landscape. Look at the
works of Claude, of Vernet, of Hubert Robert, of
Fragonard—as a rule they are delightful in colour
and in fancy, but cannot dispense with some
architectural motif. . . . Two artists only there were
who painted landscape as it appeared to their eyes,
without “touching it up” with ruins and other
architectural adornments—Bruandet, who by his
paintings and his water-colours “discovered” the
forest of Fontainebleau, and Louis Gabriel Moreau,
the dazzling water-colourist who was the real pre-
decessor of the Barbizon masters.
In the early years of the 19th century, academic
landscape came back into fashion ; artists of the type
of Fiers, Cabat, Aligny, Bertin, and Watelet, pro-
duced charming studies, but their big pictures were
execrable in their coldness and their factitious com-
position. Then, thanks to the influence of Michel
and Bonington, came a vigorous reaction, and first
with Huet, then with Corot, Millet, Rousseau,
Daubigny, François, and Harpignies, was produced
“honfleor” (water-colour)
(Moreau-Nélaton Collection)
BY J. B. JONGKIND