An Old Chapel in a Valley

Rousseau explored a wide variety of techniques in the first decade of his activity as a landscape painter, from 1826 until 1836, and he often depicted seemingly unremarkable prospects lacking recognizable landmarks, an inclination that ran counter to conventional notions of the picturesque. These factors make it challenging to trace his early artistic development and to locate his views. But they galvanize focused attention on his considerable creative resources, which enabled him to achieve a degree of compositional sophistication belied by typically humble subjects.

Characteristic of Rousseau’s early output is the manner in which he was able to create the illusion of an expansive view on a support of limited size. In this picture, scale is established by the trees in the foreground at the left, which anchor a diagonal foreground plane rendered in muted earth tones with thinned, almost ink-like paint indicating shadow. Successive planes radiate from the left, with the countryside opening up toward a distant row of poplars that all but screen off low hills at the horizon. A cluster of leaves silhouetted against the roof of a chapel, with brightly illuminated Gothic tracery just below them, offer the painting’s starkest contrast of light and dark as a focal point.

The origins of this painting are obscure. Pierre Miquel (1990) suggested it might be a morning view of the village and château of Broglie (Eure) painted about 1835, which was described by Alfred Sensier (1872, pp. 110–12) on the basis of a conversation with the artist many years later, but this contention is unsupportable. Despite differences of setting, the construction of this view is comparable to A Village in a Valley (The Met 32.100.133), painted before Rousseau’s trip to the Auvergne in 1830. But the idiosyncratic handling of paint may be the result of greater confidence that points to a slightly later date. With its small scale and informal character derived from English landscape painting, this work could be classified as a study, yet its wood support and canny structure bespeak the ambition required of a finished picture, or tableau. In overall effect, An Old Chapel in a Valley anticipates Rousseau’s Salon entry for 1833, View on the Outskirts of Granville (see fig. 1 above).

Asher Miller 2020

Inscription: Signed (lower left): TH.Rousseau.

Baron Jules de Hauff, Brussels (until 1876; his sale, rue de la Loi, no. 65, Brussels, April 20–21, 1876, no. 85, as "Paysage," apparently bought in); Henry G. Marquand, New York (until d. 1902; his estate sale, Mendelssohn Hall, New York, January 23, 1903, no. 43, as "Landscape," sold to The Met)

Detroit Institute of Arts. "French Painting from David to Courbet," February 1–March 5, 1950, no. 86 (as "Landscape").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barbizon: French Landscapes of the Nineteenth Century," February 4–May 10, 1992, no catalogue.

Alfred Sensier. Souvenirs sur Th. Rousseau. Paris, 1872, pp. 110, 112 [possibly this picture], describes two works depicting the village and chateau of Broglie which Rousseau painted one summer between 1835 and 1837, one in the morning [this picture, according to correspondence from Pierre Miquel of June 15, 1990 in archive file] and one in the afternoon (formerly collection M. Guizot, Val-Richer).

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 86.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 80, ill., tentatively date it about 1835.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 416, ill.

Michel Schulman with Marie Bataillès. Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Paris, 1999, p. 124, no. 120, ill., calls it attributed to Rousseau and dates it 1833.