The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Landscape with Large Trees

Landscape with Large Trees

c. 1870
(French, 1819–1877)
France, 19th century
black chalk with stumping on brown wove paper
Sheet: 38.1 x 52.4 cm (15 x 20 5/8 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1976.18
Catalogue raisonné: Fernier 48; Güdel 54
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The slightly blurred appearance of this drawing recalls a similar effect common in early landscape photography.

Description

The relatively few drawings that Gustave Courbet produced include the group of landscapes to which this example belongs. Rather than referencing a specific place, it combines a wide range of source material—tourist destinations the artist visited in Switzerland, his home in the Franche-Comté region, and paintings by Claude Lorrain and other historical landscapists. Courbet began by applying a hazy middletone in charcoal before adding detail with a darker, sharpened stick. Although surely appealing to collectors of the time, such works also had ideological significance, presenting an untouched terrain that suggested independence and freedom.
  • ?-?
    Machwitz Collection, Vitry-le-François, France
    ?-1976
    (Galerie Peter Nathan, Zurich), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1976-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1976." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (1977): 39-78. Reproduced: p. 52, no. 52 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 211 archive.org
    Fernier, Robert. La Vie et l’œuvre de Gustave Courbet: Catalogue raisonné. Lausanne: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1978. Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 2: p. 302-3, no. 48
    Hofmann, Werner, and Klaus Herding. Courbet und Deutschland. Exh. cat. Hamburg: Kunsthalle, 1978. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 357, no. 326
    Heilmann, Christoph H., Michael Clarke, and John Sillevis. Corot, Courbet und die Maler von Barbizon: “Les Amis de la nature.” Exh. cat. Munich: Haus der Kunst, 1996. Mentioned: p. 389, no. c16; Reproduced: p. 371
    Güdel, Niklaus Manuel, Anne-Sophie Poirot, and Philippe Clerc. Gustave Courbet: Les Dessins. Paris: Les Cahiers dessinés, 2019. Mentioned: pp. 175, 361, no. 54; Reproduced: pp. 37 (as no. 49), 177
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023).
    Corot, Courbet und die Maler von Barbizon: “Les Amis de la nature.”. Haus der Kunst, Munich (organizer) (February 4-April 21, 1996).
    French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
    Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).
    Seventeenth-, Eighteenth-, and Early Nineteenth-Century Genre and French Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 31-August 19, 1979).
    Courbet und Deutschland. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (organizer) (October 19-December 17, 1978); Städelsches Kunstinstitut im Städtischen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main, Franfurt am Main, Germany (January 17-March 18, 1979).
    Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).
  • {{cite web|title=Landscape with Large Trees|url=false|author=Gustave Courbet|year=c. 1870|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.18