Cleveland Museum of Art

In the Forest

Célestin François Nanteuil

Date

1841

Medium

oil on fabric

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

With its beautifully rendered trees, grassy slopes, and water bathed in late afternoon sunlight, this painting clearly suggests Nanteuil's love of nature. In 1837 he wrote to a friend: "I often spend several hours . . . looking at beautiful plants with large leaves, cut out like sumptuous lace, tall grasses in ponds, their color silky and the beautiful reflections they make in the water, the little flowers with thousands of colours the ground is embroidered with, all provide me with a source of enjoyment." Although the forest Nanteuil described seems very real, his painting includes a satyr. Seated on a stone near a stream, the half human, half goat mythological figure seems lost in the music he plays upon his pipes. Nanteuil is most famous for his lithographs and etchings; paintings by the artist are rather rare.

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