DOMINIQUE LOUIS FÉRÉOL PAPETY (1815-1849)
A VIEW OF THE PINCIAN WITH SANTA TRINITA DAL MONTE, ROME
Signed & inscribed l.l. Dom Papety / Roma
Watercolour with bodycolour
13.5 x 20.5 cm
Provenance:
With Frost & Reed, London;
Where purchased by J.B. Knott (1959);
Private collection, U.K.
Papety studied in Marseilles, during which time he fell under the influence of Léon Coignet: like his role-model, he won the Prix de Rome (in 1836) and spent the ensuing five years at the Academie de France, then under Ingres' directorship. Papety quickly came to be associated with his classically-inclined contemporaries Louis-Nicolas Cabat, Jean-Achille Benouville and Eugene Flandrin, whose example of painting the ancient city en plein air he began to follow.
He travelled further afield to Syria and Greece in the 1840s, painting and drawing views of the archaeological sites being worked on and uncovered during the period. The Louvre hold a particularly large collection of works on paper by Papety, including sketchbooks from his travels abroad.
The present painting is an intriguing mixture of a trained eye for perspective, finely honed architectural detailing, and the romantic atmosphere that so enchanted European artists in Rome in the mid-19th century.