Landscape with a Plowed Field and a Village

Landscape with a Plowed Field and a Village

Landscape with a Plowed Field and a Village

Artist:Georges Michel (French, Paris 1763–1843 Paris)
Date:probably after 1827
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:20 1/8 x 27 5/8 in. (51.1 x 70.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Paul Durand-Ruel, 1880
Accession Number:80.2
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 802

As a restorer at the Louvre, Michel became familiar with Dutch seventeenth-century landscapes by Van Ruisdael, Van Goyen, and Rembrandt. Though Michel’s works are rarely dated, making it difficult to understand the development of his own landscape style, works like this one provided a link to the northern tradition well before those by the Englishman John Constable caused a sensation in Paris in 1824.

This imaginary view was painted on paper mounted on canvas, an inexpensive means of starting with a smooth surface in emulation of more expensive wood panel, the favored support of Dutch Old Masters.

Provenance
Frigyes and Wilhelmine Szarvady, Paris (until 1872; sold to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, from 1872, as "Château féodal et église"]; M. Andrews (in 1873); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, until 1880]

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