Jean Joseph Xavier Bidauld

With Lestranger, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, by 1997;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

Possibly Paris, Salon, November 1812, no. 89 ('Vue faite d'après nature à Erménonville').

This delightful verdant landscape by Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld is one of several views the artist executed of the grounds at Ermenonville, where he sojourned between 1810 and 1812 at the request of the Marquis René de Girardin. Six of these, possibly including the present work, where exhibited at the Paris Salon between 1812 and 1833.¹

The gardens at Ermenoville in the Oise region were begun in 1766 by gardener Thomas Blaikie and architect Jean-Marie Morel at the request of the Marquis de Girardin, transforming what had been a desert landscape into a vast landscaped park. Inspired by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the principles of English garden design, the Marquis aimed to create a romantic landscape in which nature appeared boundless and free.

Yielding to the Marquis' pressing invitation, Jean-Jacques Rousseau visited the park on 20 May 1778. He marvelled at the estate, recounting: ‘il y a longtemps que mon cœur me faisait désirer de venir ici et mes yeux me font désirer d'y rester toujours'.² After living in the grounds for six weeks, he died suddenly, and in accordance with his wishes, he was buried on the Île des Peupliers, in the heart of the park that now bears his name, until he was transferred to the Pantheon in Paris on October 1794.

¹ One of these views, exhibited at the Salon in 1827, was sold Paris, Sotheby's, 22 June 2010, lot 59, for €39,150; https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2010/old-masters-and-19th-century-paintings-and-drawings-pf1019/lot.59.html

² F. Labour, 'Le Retour à la Nature au XVIIIe siècle. J.-J. Rousseau à Ermenonville', in Revue de Champagne et de Brie, vol. 13, Paris 1882, p. 16: 'My heart had long wanted me to come here, and my eyes made me want to stay forever'.