Because Michallon died at the age of twenty-six, his fame as one of the creators of the new school of landscape painting was obscured by the renown of his long-lived pupil Camille Corot. But when the bulk of Michallon's work was brought to light in 1930, historians were compelled to change their view, for the source of Corot's vision was apparent in the work of the young artist who had taught him how to paint.

Almost all of Michallon's surviving productions belong to the Musée du Louvre. This work is one of only a handful of finished canvases that the artist signed and dated; furthermore, it is in perfect condition. Showing a famous waterfall in Auvergne that Michallon probably saw on his way to Italy in 1817, it embodies the vigorous naturalist aesthetic that the artist brought to the tepid Neoclassicism of the first years of the nineteenth century.

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): MICHALLON / 1818

the artist (until d. 1822; perhaps his sale, 86 rue de Grenelle-Saint-Germain, Paris, December 26–28, 1822, no. 58, as "Cascade roulant sous des arbres, entre des rochers, étude terminée, faite en Auvergne," listed among the works whose medium is "peinte[s] sur papier et collées sur chassis tendus de toile," sold to L'Espine); comte Alexandre-Emile de L'Espine, Paris (from 1822); private collection, Paris; [Didier Aaron, New York, until 1994; sold to MMA]

London. Tate Britain. "Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism," February 5–May 11, 2003, no. 134 (as "Waterfall at Mont-Doré, Auvergne").

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism," June 8–September 7, 2003, no. 134 (as "Waterfall at Mont-Doré, Auvergne").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism," October 7, 2003–January 4, 2004, no. 134 (as "Waterfall at Mont-Doré, Auvergne").

Jill Hoffer Dienst et al. Didier Aaron: Catalogue. Paris, 1994–95, unpaginated, no. 19, ill. (color), call it "Rivère, cascade et chûte d'eau"; suggest that it was executed just after Michallon's arrival in Italy, a year after he had won the Prix de Rome; state that it was purchased at the Michallon atelier sale by the comte de L'Espine, interpreting the label reading "Vte de L'Espine no. 236" as its number in the Michallon sale [see Ex-colls. and Ref. Pomarède and Lesage 1994].

Vincent Pomarède and Blandine Lesage in Achille-Etna Michallon. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1994, p. 180, no. 39, as "Cascade au Mont-Dore," on the Paris art market; state that the label on the back of the canvas reads "Vte de L'Espine no. 236"; note that Jacques Salmon's [sic for Salomon?] painting "Quereuilh. Cascade au Mont-Dore" (Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand) is a copy of this work.

Gary Tinterow in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1994–1995." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 53 (Fall 1995), p. 39, ill. (color), notes that it is one of the few finished works that the artist signed and dated; suggests that Michallon saw this waterfall in Auvergne on his way to Italy in 1817.

Blandine Lesage. "Achille-Etna Michallon (1796–1822). Catalogue de l'oeuvre peint." Gazette des beaux-arts 130 (October 1997), p. 115, no. 19, ill.

Patrick Noon in Patrick Noon. Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2003, p. 224, no. 134, ill. (color), dates it to shortly after the artist's arrival in Rome; relates it to his tree studies and competition essays of 1817.

Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 28, 276, no. 26, ill. (color and black and white).

Stéphane Paccoud in Un siècle de paysages: Les choix d'un amateur. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons. Paris, 2010, p. 152, compares it to "Scène champêtre avec personnages" by Charles Rémond (private collection).

There is a copy of this painting by Jacques Salmon, "Queureuilh. Cascade au Mont-Dore," in the Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand.