From groups in the countryside, he turned his attention to scandalous women bathing in the woods, then a series of superb landscapes.
landscape
From being staffage in landscapes, shepherds and their flocks became motifs in their own right, with the social realist of Millet, even Henri Regnault.
Live models for figures, landscape oil sketching in front of the motif, the sensuous nude, narratives with multiple readings, incredibly loose brushwork, and so much more than portraits.
Views of one glacier over 250 years show how it has changed. Others in Greenland and Iceland are rapidly vanishing too.
Between 1774-79 he painted views of the mountains, glaciers and waterfalls of the Alps. And he even made oil sketches in front of the motif.
Examples of the work of Thomas Jones, Constable, Corot, Blechen, Boudin, Jongkind, Pissarro, Cézanne, Sargent, Monet, and more.
Nine of his brilliant oil sketches made in front of the motif in the Roman Campagna between 1782-85, which helped change the history of art.
Almost a century after its publication, Pissarro still recommended Valenciennes’ textbook on landscape painting. Here’s why.
Modern landscape painting, since before the Impressionists, relies on oil sketches made in front of the motif. Was it Vernet who advised Valenciennes to adopt this practice?
Claimed to be the only Austrian Impressionist, he didn’t start painting full-time until he was 43, and died twelve years later. Here are some superb paintings.
