Classical Landscape
Medium
black gouache and brush and gray wash, over black chalk and graphite, heightened with white gouache
Dimensions
{"sheet":{"height":0.413,"width":0.483},"secondary support":{"height":0.436,"width":0.521}}
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1980.91
Tags
About this artwork
The leading landscape painter of the late 18th century, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes was also an important theoretician whose book Elements of Practical Perspective influenced generations of French artists who followed. In the book, the artist described two ways of envisioning nature: "seeing it as it is," and "seeing it as it could be." He preferred the latter, believing that it demanded more of the imagination than merely copying the natural world. The perfection of the setting in this drawing...