Pierre Henri de Valenciennes

Valenciennes was the leading theorist of French historical landscape. During years in Italy in the late 1770s and 1780s he made small oil sketches outdoors, recording the same rooftops or clouds at different times of day, studies he kept in his studio but which are now his most admired work. His treatise of 1800 urged students to paint from nature, and his teaching helped bring about the Prix de Rome for historical landscape, created in 1817.

Written by Ochre Editions.