Via Appia Antica

Having originally trained as a history painter under Girodet-Troison at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Bertin turned his hand to landscape painting even while still a young man. He was a pupil in the studios of Bidauld, Watelet and, finally, Jean-Victor Bertin,¹ to whom he was not related, despite the identical name. It was through the last-named artist that François-Édouard Bertin made the acquaintance of the two artists with whom he would embark on his 1825 trip to Rome² to paint from nature: Corot and Caruelle d’Áligny.³ In the course of his life, Bertin was not only a restless roamer of Italy but also a draughtsman who left behind a substantial body of work. This is mentioned in the catalogue of the posthumous exhibition of his works staged by the École des Beaux-Arts in 1872. When composing his landscapes, Bertin invariably sought to generate a feeling of contemplative tranquillity, which meant that only the occasional staffage figure was permitted. The slightly arched upper edge of his drawings, including the one under discussion here, is a stylistic peculiarity of Bertin’s. The impression created is one of landscapes that are neither mere studies of particular motifs nor rustic reveries, but rather something in between. To judge by the numerous pencil underdrawings, it seems likely that this study was executed in situ. Whether it was done during Bertin’s brief trip to Rome in 1823 or during his time in Italy between 1825 and 1827 is difficult to say. On returning to Paris in 1827, he became a follower of Ingres,⁴ only to turn his back on his historicizing treatment of landscape just a few years later and focusing instead on painting from nature, including in the Forest of Fontainebleau.⁵