Louis Gabriel Moreau
(French, 1740-1805)

"Paysage avec Chateau et Cours d'Eau (Landscape with Castle and Stream)", 1787

gouache on paper
signed and dated lower right, frame backing with period handwritten inscription largely effaced and various labels including a 1907 auction label, exhibition/inventory sticker, "Paulin & Detres, Paris" shipping label and "Livingston Galleries, New York" label (ca. 1943-1965). Glazed and framed.
19" x 26-1/8"

Provenance: Devaux Sale, Paris, November 27-28, 1907, lot 86; Richard Owen Collection, Paris, France, 1907- ; Private collection.

Notes: Louis Gabriel Moreau, a gifted draughtsman, etcher and painter of landscapes, had a prodigious career. After studying with Pierre-Antoine de Machy, who specialized in painting Grand Tour themes - landscapes redolent with Classical ruins and tromp-l'oeil architectural scenes, he went on to become a member of the Academie de St. Luc, artist to Comte d'Artois (later King Charles X), and curator of the National Museum in Paris. Moreau, a master of watercolors and gouaches, combined the picturesque architectures of his master de Machy with naturalistically, almost plein-air-rendered, topographical landscapes in the Ile-de-France region just outside of Paris. Moreau's fascination with the effects of light at different times of the day precipitated his use of a lighter palette, characterized by warm yellows and verdant foliage punctuated by deep ultramarine blues instead of browns. Moreau's predilection for natural light made him equally successful following the French Revolution, in which the Third Estate toppled the landed gentry and their royal established academies. Before 1789, French castles and estates in lush settings of abundance were Moreau's preferred subject; the painting offered exemplifies this style - a style upon which he established himself as an artist for nearly twenty-five years exhibiting annually at the Academie de St. Luc. Following the Revolution, Moreau's, bright palette and light drenched compositions with voluminous clouds and ruins dotting the low horizon remained; his subjects, on the other hand, became distinctly more humble, showcasing the daily life of farmers, fishermen, modest structures and gardens. Both Moreau's pre- and post-Revolutionary paintings are equally desired by collectors and institutions. Richard Owen (1873-1946), a prominent British art dealer of French art in the early-to-mid 1900s, who purchased this lot for 950 Francs at the Devaux Sale in 1907, owned a few Moreaus that he exhibited widely in Boston and New York in 1933 in the "Richard Owen Collection of 18th Century French Drawings and Watercolors" at the Worcester Art Museum, The Fogg Art Museum, Carnegie Hall Art Gallery, and Brummer Gallery, New York. Additional numbered labels on the back of this Moreau suggest that it too may have been exhibited as part of the Richard Owen Collection. References: Beaux-Arts: Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosite 9 (1939): 93; Hughes, Katherine. "New Worcester Art Museum Formally Opened to Public". Boston Herald. 9 Jan.,1993: 11; "Coordination". Springfield Republican. 1 Jan. 1933: 44; "Master Drawings." Arts Magazine 8:28 (1933): 28; "Louis-Gabriel Moreau". Oxford Art Online. 2007-2016. Web. 31 July 2016.