Paul Huet, 'Trees in the Park at Saint-Cloud', probably 1850s

Trees in the Park at Saint-Cloud

Paul Huet

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This unfinished oil sketch on canvas is by Paul Huet, an important figure in French 19th-century landscape painting. While a student in the 1820s, he often painted outdoors in the park at Saint-Cloud, in the west of Paris. He continued to visit the park throughout his life, and this sketch probably dates from the 1850s. It contains cadmium yellow or orange, not widely available until at least the 1840s.

A pioneer of Romantic landscape painting, Huet was particularly interested in capturing the changing moods evoked by landscape through the play of light. Although he abandoned this sketch, it shows his method of painting, particularly his use of thickly painted bands of bright and dark greens to recreate the dense foliage of the towering trees that almost fill the canvas. He was a friend of the British landscape artist Richard Parkes Bonington, and of Eugène Delacroix, and his working method and technique prefigured the work of the Barbizon artists of the mid-nineteenth century, and the later Impressionists.

In-depth

This unfinished oil sketch on canvas is by Paul Huet, a leading figure of French nineteenth-century landscape painting. While a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1820s, he often visited the park at Saint-Cloud, one of his favourite locations. Situated in the west of Paris, it had expansive views across the river Seine and the city. The park was a royal domain on the site of Château de Saint-Cloud, the residence of several royal and imperial families from the sixteenth century until its destruction in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war. Huet continued to visit the park throughout his life, and this sketch probably dates from the 1850s. It contains cadmium yellow or orange, not widely available until at least the 1840s.

A pioneer of Romantic landscape painting, Huet was especially interested in capturing the changing moods evoked by landscape through the atmospheric effects of light and shade. He sometimes worked en plein air (outdoors) – as is very likely the case with this painting, whose bright freshness contrasts with the darker mood of many of his larger, more finished works. Although abandoned, this sketch demonstrates his method of painting. Applying lighter paint over darker areas of shadow, Huet builds up structure with vertical bands of yellow-greens and darker greens to suggest the towering trees that almost fill the canvas. The use of green-black paint, particularly between the trees and behind their trunks, adds depth to the scene. Between the tree trunks, we catch a glimpse of a fountain. A variety of brushstrokes recreate the different textures of dense foliage. Quick, twisting dabs of the brush produce a translucent feathery effect – for example, in the branches overhanging against the sky. This is enhanced by traces of the brush’s bristles in the paint. Elsewhere, including the left side of the incomplete tree on the right, the paint is laid on more thickly, in short strokes, to create a denser surface. Huet conceded that he did not always find it easy to paint in front of nature, and we can only speculate as to why he abandoned this painting.

While at the École des Beaux-Arts, Huet was enrolled in the studio of the history painter, Baron Gros, from 1819 to 1822. There he met another student, the young English artist Richard Parkes Bonington, and the two frequently painted together in Normandy. Huet was deeply influenced not only by Bonington’s habit of painting outdoors and his use of watercolour (a medium which he adopted), but also by landscapes exhibited by British artists, including Constable, at the Paris Salons of 1824 and 1827. In 1822 Huet met the young Eugène Delacroix and the two became lifelong friends. He is credited with painting part of the landscape in Delacroix’s Portrait of Louis-Auguste Schwiter (1826), which is also in the National Gallery’s collection.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Trees in the Park at Saint-Cloud
Artist: Paul Huet
Artist dates: 1803-1869
Date made: probably 1850s
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 37.6 × 55.5 cm
Inscription summary: Inscribed
Acquisition credit: Presented by the Lishawa Family in memory of Kate (Lishawa), 2005
Inventory number: NG6603
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 19th-century French Frame

Provenance

The Huet family, by descent to Maurice Perret‐Carnot (1892–1977) by at least 1928 (when Paul Huet’s son, René Paul Huet [1844–1928] died) (Perret‐Carnot was married to René Paul Huet’s daughter Claire); with Galerie Fischer‐Keiner, Paris, by May 1993; acquired there by John Lishawa in May 1993; presented by the Lishawa family in memory of Kate (Lishawa), 2005.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Sarah Herring, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Nineteenth Century French Paintings’, vol. 1, ‘The Barbizon School’, London 2019; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2009

Corot to Monet: A Fresh Look at Landscape from the Collection

The National Gallery (London)

8 July 2009 - 20 September 2009
2010

Impressionist Gardens

National Gallery of Scotland

31 July 2010 - 17 October 2010

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

16 November 2010 - 13 February 2011
2013

Through European Eyes: The Landscape Oil Sketch

The National Gallery (London)

6 February 2013 - 28 April 2013

Bibliography

1869

P. Burty, Paul Huet: Notice biographique et critique, suivie du catalogue de ses oeuvres exposées en partie dans les salons de l'Union artistique, Paris 1869
1906

L. Delteil, Le peintre-graveur illustré, ed. P. Huet, Paris 1906
1911

R.P. Huet (ed.), Paul Huet (1803-1869), d'après ses notes, sa correspondence, ses contemporains, Paris 1911
1911

M. Tourneux, 'Paul Huet et son œuvre, d'après des documents inédits', Gazette des beaux-arts, V, 1911, pp. 447-58
1930

A. Joubin et al., Centenaire du romantisme: Exposition Paul Huet 1803-1869 (exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, March 1930), Paris 1930
1938

L. Vauxcelles et al., Exposition rétrospective d'oeuvres de Paul Huet 1803-1869 (exh. cat. Galerie Guy Stein, 1938), Paris 1938
1962

P. Miquel, Paul Huet: De l'aube romantique à l'aube impressioniste, Paris 1962
1969

M. Helston et al., Paintings by Paul Huet (1803-1869) and Some Contemporary French Sculpture (exh. cat. Heim Gallery, 16 January - 20 February 1969), London 1969
1975

P. Miquel, Le Paysage francais au XIXe siecle, 1824-1874. L'école de la nature, Maurs-la-Jolie 1975
1996

L. Pauchet-Warlop, 'Paul Huet', in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, vol. 14, pp. 847-8
2003

B. Jobert, 'Autour de Paul Huet: Réflexions sur le genre du paysage dans la peinture romantique française', in F. Dassas (ed.), De la rhétorique des passions à l'expression du sentiment, Paris 2003, pp. 166-73
2004

P. Conisbee, S. Faunce and Y. Kohari, Plein-air painting in Europe 1780-1850 (exh. cat. Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Shizuoka; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), Shizuoka 2004
2006

National Gallery, The National Gallery Review: April 2005 - March 2006, London 2006
2009

E. Maréchaux-Laurentin, Paul Huet: Peintre de la nature 1803-1869, Paris 2009
2010

C.A.P. Willsdon, Impressionist Gardens (exh. cat., National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh), Edinburgh 2010
2019

Herring, Sarah, National Gallery Catalogues: The Nineteenth Century French Paintings, 1, The Barbizon School, London 2019

Frame

This French frame dates to the French Empire–Restoration period, spanning from 1810 to the 1830s. Crafted from pinewood, with its ornaments made from composition, it embodies the essence of the era, characterised by a small semi-rounded top followed by an ogee moulding.

The frame is adorned with intricate shell motifs and scrolling flowers and leaves, along with foliate S- and C-scrolls and ‘décor mosaique en croisillons’. The latter is a type of lattice work in the form of square mosaic shapes in a grid-like pattern, encased with crossing stripes or bars. The back edge of the frame is a reverse-bevelled hollow, designed to remain out of view, while the sight edge features a regimented acanthus-leaf-and-shield motif. Remarkably, the frame has retained its original gilding. This is the first or original frame for Huet’s Trees in the Park at Saint-Cloud.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.