Simon Denis

European Private collection for several generations.

Possibly Paris, Salon, September 1791, nos 87 or 740 (as Vue de Riviére. Paysage orné de figures & d'animaux and Vue & Paysage d'Italie, orné de figures & d'animaux).

Simon Denis was a pupil of Hendrik Joseph Antonissen in his native Antwerp. From 1755 he based himself in Paris, though he did make several trips back to Flanders. In 1786 he moved once more, to Rome. During his period in Rome he also painted in the open air, unusually signing and annotating these works, such as seen here. The painter Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842) later recounted in her memoirs visiting the falls at Tivoli with Denis, a location which is likely to have inspired this work, in 1789–90:

'M. Ménageot then accompanied me to Tivoli with my daughter, and Denis, the painter - it was a charming party. We first visited the cascades, which enchanted me so much the gentlemen could hardly induce me to leave.'¹

The artist later settled in Naples in 1804, becoming the first painter to Joseph Bonaparte and from 1809 he was also Professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti.  

¹ M.F. Tyler (ed.), Souvenirs of Madame Vigée Le Brun, New York 1880, p. 136.