Croix de Moulin des Planches

Born near Nottingham of English parents, Richard Parkes Bonington spent much of his short life in France. He studied initially in Calais with Louis Francia before moving to Paris. In 1818 he first met Eugène Delacroix and enrolled in the atelier of Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, where he formed a lasting friendship with Paul Huet, a fellow pupil. He was one of the stars of the 1824 Paris Salon, where British art was so triumphant, and along with John Constable and Copley Fielding received a gold medal.

Bonington was an inveterate traveller and spent much time exploring the north coast of France. In 1825 he visited London with several French artists, including Delacroix, and in 1826 he travelled through Switzerland to Venice.

Bonington was one of the most important artists of the early nineteenth century, vital to the understanding of French and British art of the Romantic period. His range included history and subject paintings, and landscapes, highly-finished works and sketches, all imbued with a brilliance and sureness of touch which was greatly admired both during and after his lifetime. He died tragically young from tuberculosis at the age of 25 in London.

This minor example of early lithography illustrates the monumental, 24-volume series <em>Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l'ancienne France </em>(Pictursque and romantic trips in ancient France), the first collection of French heritage. It was published under the director of Isidore (Baron) Taylor. Publication spanned 1820 (Normandy I), and 1878. The volume where this engraving is found, Franche-Comte, was one of the earliest, dating from 1825, published 1827 - just within the Anglo-French artist Richard Parkes Bonington's tragically short lifetime (1802-28). It depicts a large raised Gothic cross, standing in a square with people congregating around its base. Behind this is a house surrounded by trees and a country lane.

See:

The National Gallery, 'Richard Parkes Bonington', https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/richard-parkes-bonington

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_pittoresques_et_romantiques_dans_l%27ancienne_France

Dr Mark Stocker     Curator, Historical International Art     October 2017