Félix-Hippolyte Lanoüe (1812-1872) Italian Landscape with Bathers

Félix-Hippolyte LANOÜE
(Versailles, 1812 – Versailles, 1872)
Italian Landscape with Bathers
Oil on canvas, in its original frame
D. 41 cm
Signed lower right
Circa 1840

Trained by Jean-Victor Bertin, then, it seems, a student of Horace Vernet at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Lanoüe won a prize for Perspective there at the age of 20. Winner of the Grand Prix de Rome for Historical Landscape in 1841 (after coming second in the 1837 edition), he belongs to what can be defined as the third and last generation of neoclassical landscape painters, born in the 1810s and 1820s, such as Achille Bénouville, Paul Flandrin, Eugène-Ferdinand Buttura, and Alfred de Curzon, all influenced by Corot.

A regular exhibitor at the Salon from 1833 until his death, Italy was the main theme of his paintings, as Théophile Gautier, one of his admirers, wrote: "Lanoüe is faithful to his beloved Italy. He always returns there." Without further details, we know that he made a first short stay there in the second half of the 1830s, a period when he only presented landscapes of the Paris basin (Fontainebleau, the Seine valley) at the Salon. After winning the Grand Prix de Rome, he then spent four years at the Villa Medici between 1842 and 1846. From 1861 onwards, Lanoüe exhibited Italian paintings at almost every Salon, alongside a few views of the south of France. Do these paintings correspond to several trips to Italy, or were they based on studies made during previous visits? He was a hit with both the public and the government, which bought several of his works and awarded him the Legion of Honor in 1864. Critics praised his steady brushwork and straightforward style.