The Marsh
Constant Troyon·1840
Historical Context
Troyon's The Marsh, painted in 1840, dates from the period before his transformation from landscape to animal painter. In the early 1840s, Troyon was developing his landscape style in the company of the Barbizon painters — Rousseau, Dupre, and Diaz — in the Forest of Fontainebleau and the marshlands of the Seine valley. These atmospheric landscapes show the influence of Dutch seventeenth-century painting filtered through the Romantic sensibility of the Barbizon group.
Technical Analysis
Troyon's oil-on-canvas technique renders the marshy landscape with broad, atmospheric brushwork. The limited palette of greens, browns, and grays captures the moisture-laden air, while the horizontal composition emphasizes the vast, flat terrain stretching to a low horizon.
Provenance
Mme. Lavaigneur collection, probably by 1840 [inscribed on the inside of original frame: Mr. Levaigneur 1840]; her estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 2, 1912, lot 19 (ill.); sold to Lemaréchal for 24,100 Francs [acc. to Gazette de Hôtel Drouot (May 4, 1912)]. Robert Hellebranth, Paris. Galerie Koller’s Sale, Zurich, November 11, 1981, lot 5047 (ill. 61); private collection; Sotheby’s Sale, London, June 12, 1996, lot 44 (ill.). Stair Sainty Matthiesen Inc., New York, 1996; sold to the Art Institute, 1996.
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