Sold Without Reserve, LOUIS GAUFFIER | VIEW OF THE RAVINE AT SAN COSIMATO

With Galerie Tesseidre, Paris;

From whom acquired by a private collector;

Anonymous sale, Paris, Christie's, 23 June 2010, lot 131;

There acquired. 

This atmospheric landscape was painted around 1790 by Louis Gauffier. Bathed in a golden Italian light, it is exemplary of his interest in the effects of light on nature. Here, Gauffier records the ravine of San Cosimato, a picturesque spot on the outskirts of Rome. On the other side of the rising plateau at right would have been a church and a convent. The beauty of this location also attracted other leading contemporary artists, including Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld, who captured the same view in his signed canvas dated 1788 (fig. 1).¹

A native of Poitiers, Gauffier moved to Paris where he was apprenticed to Hughes Taraval and won the premier grand prix de peinture - jointly with Jean-Germain Drouais - in 1784. He left for Rome later that year and remained in Italy until the end of his life, except for a brief trip back to Paris in 1789 (year in which he exhibited at the Salon and was agréé à l'Académie).

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Louis Gauffier currently in preparation by Anna Ottani Cavaina and Emilia Calbi.  

1. Oil on canvas, unlined, 32.4 by 24.1 cm, sold Sotheby’s New York, 27 January 2011, lot 132, for $80,500.