Lot 166: FRAN€OIS ANTOINE LEON FLEURY (Paris 1804-1858)

A view of Papigno, Italy, from the east with signature 'Corot' (lower left) oil on paper laid down on canvas 133/4 x 221/4 in. (33.6 x 56.5 cm.) PROVENANCE John Lishawa, London. with Crawley and Asquith Ltd., London. EXHIBITION Crawley and Asquith Ltd., London, The Art of the Landscape: Classical, Neo-Classical and en plein air 1650-1900, 1988, no. 52. NOTES Fran‡ois Antoine Leon Fleury entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1821 and studied under Hersent and Bertin. It is documented that he traveled to Italy with Camille Corot between 1825 and 1828, at which time the artists formed a close friendship. Returning to France in 1830, he exhibited oils of Italian views at his first Salon the following year. He continued to exhibit views of Italy and France at the Salon until 1855. From 1855-1858, Corot stayed with Fleury at Magny les Hamuex and executed many decorations for his friend's house. The present work depicts a view of the small village of Papigno in the Roman Campagna. Lying on an outcrop above the valley of the river Nera, the village is situated just to the east of Terni, itself about forty miles north of Rome. The composition is very similar to a view by Corot painted in 1826 (private collection; illustrated in P. Galassi, Corot in Italy, New Haven and London, 1991, p. 197, fig. 251). Although Fleury extends the view on both sides to include the buttress on the left and more of the valley on the right, his design replicates that of Corot's, with a large foreground mass balanced by another smaller one set further in the distance and a similar, Claudian transition from darkness to light towards the horizon.