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Classical Landscape with Figures

1803
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 805
In this pastoral scene, Bertin employs figures gathered around an aged poet at the lower right, both to animate the landscape and to evoke the golden age of classical antiquity. His idealized vision of nature is very much in the manner of French artists active in Rome in the seventeenth century, notably Claude Lorrain. At the end of the eighteenth century, paintings like this one were brought into vogue by Bertin’s teacher, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, and served as touchstones to Bertin’s pupils, notably Achille-Etna Michallon and Camille Corot.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Classical Landscape with Figures
  • Artist: Jean Victor Bertin (French, Paris 1767–1842 Paris)
  • Date: 1803
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 14 1/2 x 18 in. (36.8 x 45.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Whitney Collection, Gift of Wheelock Whitney III, and Purchase, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. McVeigh, by exchange, 2003
  • Object Number: 2003.42.3
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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A Plane Tree, Jean Victor Bertin French, Black chalk
A Plane Tree
Jean Victor Bertin
late 18th–mid-19th century
Classical Landscape with a Shepherd, Jean Victor Bertin French, Black chalk, gray wash, heightened with white chalk and touches of gouache, on beige paper, lined
Classical Landscape with a Shepherd
Jean Victor Bertin
1803
Landscape with a Poplar and a Willow Tree at the Edge of a Pond, Jean Victor Bertin French, Black chalk
Landscape with a Poplar and a Willow Tree at the Edge of a Pond
Jean Victor Bertin
1787–1842
Landscape, Jean Victor Bertin French, Oil on canvas
Landscape
Jean Victor Bertin
ca. 1810–20
Deer at the Edge of a Wood, Jean Victor Bertin French, Oil on paper, laid down on canvas
Deer at the Edge of a Wood
Jean Victor Bertin
1835

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