PIERRE LOUIS DE LA RIVE 18TH CENTURY LANDSCAPE OIL PAINTING OLD SWITZERLAND 1800

IMPORTANT AND RARE ANTIQUE 18TH CENTURY SWISS LANDSCAPE IMPRESSIONIST OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS BY REVERED SWISS PAINTER, ENGRAVER AND DESIGNER PIERRE LOUIS DE LA RIVE. (Swiss 1753-1817). THIS WORK DEPICTS A TONALIST LANDSCAPE SCENE IN GENEVA SWITZERLAND. IN THE FOREGROUND, TWO FIGURES CAN BE SEEN, ONE SITTING AND THE OTHER STANDING AND POINTING. IN THE BACKGROUND, PERHAPS A FARMER OR SHEPHERD IS GUIDING A SMALL HERD OF CATTLE ACROSS A SLOPING HILL. THE CATTLE ARE DEPICTED WITH SOFT, BLENDED BRUSHSTROKES, CONTRIBUTING TO THE TRANQUIL AND PASTORAL QUALITY OF THE SCENE. IN THE DISTANCE, QUAINT COTTAGES ARE NESTLED AMONG THE HILLS, PARTIALLY OBSCURED BY THE TONALIST HAZE WHICH ENHANCES THE ATMOSPHERIC EFFECT. THE BRUSHSTROKES ARE SUBTLE AND SUGGESTIVE, CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF THE LANDSCAPE WITHOUT DETAILED REALISM. THE OVERALL MOOD EVOKES A QUIET, TIMELESS MOMENT IN THE SWISS COUNTRYSIDE. SIMPLY AMAZING. THIS PAINTING RETAINS A BRONZE NAME PLAQUE ON THE FRONT LOWER CENTER THAT READS: P-L DE LA RIVE, GENEVE 1753-1817. THE BRONZE NAME TAG USUALLY MEANS THAT IT WAS AN IMPORTANT COMMISSION WORK FOR A ROYAL FAMILY OR SOMEONE OF HIGH IMPORTANCE. EXCELLENT OVERALL CONDITION CONSIDERING IT’S OVER 200 YEARS OLD. MILD CRAQUELURE AND WEAR TO THE FRAME AS SHOWN. DIMENSIONS INCLUDING THE FRAME: 17” H x 20” W DIMENSIONS WITHOUT THE FRAME: 10” H x 13” W Pierre-Louis De La Rive (1753 - 1817) was active/lived in Germany and Switzerland. Pierre Louis De La Rive is known for Landscape/scenery painting. Pierre-Louis De la Rive (21 October 1753, Geneva - 7 October 1817, Presinge) was a Swiss painter, engraver and designer. His works helped originate the Geneva School of landscape painting and he was often referred to as the "inventor" of the Alpine landscape. He created the first painting of Mont Blanc from life in 1802. He was born to an old family of magistrates and learned men. His father, Pierre, was a pastor in Cartigny. In 1773, after attending courses in Natural Philosophy taught by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, he gave up his legal studies but had great difficulty convincing his father to allow him to pursue a career in the fine arts. In 1774, he and his friend, Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros, travelled through Savoy and Vaud, making sketches. Eventually, he was able to take lessons from the landscape painter, Nicolas Henri Joseph de Fassin, who came from Liège. His instruction consisted largely of copying the Dutch masters from the collections of François Tronchin and Jean-Jacques de Sellon. In 1776, he went to Germany. After a brief stay in Mannheim, he enrolled at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he came under the tutelage of Giovanni Battista Casanova, who introduced him to the work of Claude Lorrain and the early Italians. In 1779, he married Théodora-Charlotte Godefroy and the couple returned to Geneva. Once there, he took Casanova's advice and began painting in a manner that would later be called en plein aire. In 1784, he visited the major art collections in Holland, Germany and Austria. During an eighteen-month stay in Rome, he worked with Ducros, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours and Antonio Canova, making copies in museums, painting outdoors and developing a less rigorous representational style. Upon returning to Switzerland, in 1787, he settled in Céligny and became a member of the Geneva Art Society. He held major exhibitions at their salons of 1789 and 1792. As of 1788, he was also a member of the Council of Two Hundred. Following the War of the First Coalition, he was compelled to relocate to Bern, but was able to return in 1797 and settle in Presinge. He was even able to arrange exhibitions at the Salon of Paris in 1799 and 1801. His clients there included Germaine de Staël and Empress Joséphine. Pierre worked as a copyist of Dutch and Flemish paintings to develop his skills at the start of his creative period. He completed classical training in Mannheim before studying at Dresden’s Academy between 1777 and 1779. De La Rive undertook studies of nature in Crissier, near Lausanne, in 1780 and then painted in Rome under the influence of Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours. From 1786, he worked independently as a painter of landscapes and animals based in Geneva. In addition to his well-known images of Mont Blanc, his naturalistic works primarily feature themes drawn from Switzerland, such as idyllic landscapes with herds of cattle. In October, 1813, he had a paralytic stroke, from which he never fully recovered. Born: October 21, 1753, Geneva, Switzerland Died: October 7, 1817 (age 63 years), Presinge, Switzerland Form: Panting