wall label: A master of the idealized landscape, Bertin preferred to assemble various scenes into a composition of his own invention rather than to base his entire painting on an observation of one site. This idyllic landscape illustrates that approach, integrating into one small canvas a few clusters of meticulously rendered trees, a stream, and a group of nymphs in antique dress dancing around a statue of a deity.
Open and wooded areas and bands of sunlight and shadow are also carefully placed to enhance the sense of nature arranged in impeccable order. This effect is enhanced by the canvas' precise brushwork and smooth surface, hallmarks of the Neoclassical landscape.