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A landscape with the Alban hills and Monte Cavo
Simon DENIS
(Antwerp 1755 - Naples 1813)
Oil on canvas
H. 0,695 m; L. 0,99 m
Signed and dated: Denis 1797
Date: 1797
Provenance: Private collection, Germany
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Simon Denis studied in Antwerp, his native city, under the landscape painter H.-J. Antonissen. In the early 1780s he moved to Paris where he enjoyed the patronage of Jean-Baptiste Lebrun, the genre painter and art dealer. With Lebrun’s support, he travelled to Rome in 1786.
His work soon attracted public attention. In 1787, a lengthy article praising one of his landscapes appeared in one of the leading art periodicals of the day, Giornale per le Belle Arti. The article highlights his ability to render effects of light and his convincing observation of detail. Deciding to settle in Italy, he married a local woman. He maintained close ties with the Flemish community in Rome and was elected a member of the Fondation St.-Julien-des-Flamands in 1789. He also moved in French artistic circles. The celebrated French portrait painter Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun stayed with him for several days in 1789. Together, they made an excursion to Tivoli in the company of François Ménageot, director of the French Academy in Rome. Painters like François-Marius Granet, Martin Verstappen and C.J. Hendrik Voogd sought him out to study his working methods.
He enjoyed a burgeoning reputation from the early 1790s until his death in 1813. In 1803, he was elected to the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. Writing to Goethe in 1805, August von Schlegel cited Denis as one of the best landscape painters working in Rome. Schlegel shared this conviction with other men of letters and a number of well-known artists. Around 1800, Denis settled in Naples, succeeding Jakob Philipp Hackert as court painter. In 1806 he was appointed court painter to the newly installed King of Naples, Joseph Bonaparte.
In his large-format landscapes, topographical accuracy was not always a priority. He frequently rearranged the prominent characteristics of the landscape or architectural setting to create his own idealized landscapes. A striking feature of the present work, painted while he was in Rome, is the distinctive silhouette of Monte Cavo. This is one of the highest points in the Alban Hills. It is located near Lake Albano in Lazio, south-east of Rome. These paintings, highly finished and executed with great attention to detail, are stylistically close to works by Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld, Nicolas Didier Boguet and Jean-Victor Bertin.
We are grateful to Dr. Domenico Riccardi for identifying the topography.
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