Jean Baptiste Pillement
, French, 1728-1808
Title
Landscape with Muleteers and PeasantsDate1791 or 1797
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
49 x 68 cm
Credit LinePurchased, 1930
Object numberNGI.939
ProvenancePurchased, M. Jean Charpentier, Paris, 1930Exhibition HistoryVon Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, 22 March - 6 September 2015; Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016Label TextFrench painter Pillement produced numerous idyllic landscapes featuring small figures of herdsmen, washerwomen and fishermen. In this painting, and its pendant Landscape with Washerwomen and Peasants (also in this room), a large bridge creates a portal within the picture, framing the fanciful landscape beyond. Pillement spent over ten years in England where such romantic landscape scenes were popular. His work was favoured by the French queen Marie Antoinette who appointed Pillement as her personal painter in 1778.