ETIENNE BOUHOT | A FIRE IN A WINTER LANDSCAPE

Salon, Paris, 1812;

Where acquired by M. Robert-Voisin;

With Galerie Perrin, Paris, by 1986;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 7 June 1989, lot 187;

There acquired by The First National Bank of Chicago;

From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

S. Balan, Etienne Bouhot, 1780-1862: ouvrage édité à l'occasion de l'exposition Etienne Bouhot, 1780-1862 au Musée de Semur-en-Auxois, 23 juin-10 septembre 2001, exhibition catalogue, Semur-en-Auxois 2001, p. 37 and 104 (as Le courier de la malle. Effet de neige.).

Etienne Bouhot made a reputation for himself through the panoramic perspective he developed in his landscapes, a technique he likely mastered in the workshop of Pierre Prévost. Given that his talents were as a landscape artist, Bouhot would often have other artists like Xavier Leprince and Léopold Boilly paint the figures in his compositions. His works, which frequently exhibited in the Paris Salon, were highly sought after by the elite in Paris, including the Duke of Orleans, the Duke and the Duchess of Berry, and Louis XVIII. Bouhot became the Director of the Drawing Academy in Semur where he died in 1862.

Although the Industrial Revolution did not start in France until the 1830s, the countryside was starting to show signs of its development since the Napoleonic Wars. While most artists opted to present an idealized vision of the country, reminiscing on what it once was, here Bouhot instead captures the threat facing the countryside on the brink of the Industrial Revolution.