Canal Saint-Martin

JOHAN BARTHOLD JONGKIND (LATTROP 1819-1891 SAINT-ÉGRÈVE)
Canal Saint-Martin
signé et daté 'Jongkind 1853' (en bas, à gauche)
huile sur toile, sur sa toile et son châssis d'origine
43,5 x 60 cm (17¹⁄₈ x 23²⁄₃ in.)

Collection particulière, en 1975 (selon V. Hefting, 1975, op. cit. infra).
Collection particulière du centre de la France.

V. Hefting, Jongkind. Sa vie, son oeuvre, son époque, Paris, 1975, n°121 (avec des dimensions erronées de 50 x 75 cm), p. 95, reproduit en noir et blanc.
A. Stein et al., Jongkind. Catalogue critique de l'oeuvre. Peintures, Paris, 2003, I, p. 96, n°110 (avec des dimensions erronées de 50 x 75 cm), reproduit en noir et blanc.

JOHAN BARTHOLD JONGKIND (1819-1891), THE CANAL SAINT-MARTIN, OIL ON CANVAS, UNLINED, ON ITS ORIGINAL STRETCHER, SIGNED AND DATED

Influenced by his native Holland, the art of Jongkind (1819-1891) sometimes evokes the fantastical nocturnes of Aert van der Neer (1603-1677) or the Ruysdael, painters of the Dutch Golden Age, who played a crucial role in his education. After arriving in France in 1846, his original style blended with the realism of Courbet (1819-1877) and the Barbizon school, whose members were then busy painting what were known as ‘landscape portraits’.

Although Jongkind was close to Isabey (1767-1855) and painted views of Normandy on his travels with him, Paris exerted a real fascination on him, as can be seen in this poetic view of the Canal Saint-Martin. The cold palette of the moonlight contrasts with the warm, flat light of the studio lights in the background. There are at least three other views of the Canal Saint-Martin in the painter's oeuvre, though depicting a view from higher up the waterway near the old barrière de la Villette (V. Hefting, 1975, op. cit., no. 246, 247 and 745). The present view depicts the Canal closer to the old suburbs of Paris, and shows in great detail the picturesque aspect of the east of the city, with its laundry-boats and working-class character.