The Great Oak at Chaville (Le gros chene a Chaville)
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Frank Crowninshield Collection
Accession Number
1948.3.65
Art Historical Context
*The Great Oak at Chaville (Le gros chêne à Chaville), an etching from 1924 by French artist André Dunoyer deonzac, captures the presence of a venerable oak tree in the Paris suburb of Chaville. Segonzac (1884–1974), a master of realist landscapes a key figure in the School of, favored earthy, unidealized depictions of the French countryside. This print exemplifies his post-World War I shift toward a "return to order," blending precise observation with a touch of Impressionist light play, rendered through the intricate lines of etching—a technique where acid etches designs into a metal plate f...
About the Artist
André Dunoyer de Segonzac
André Dunoyer de Segonzac (1884–1974) was a leading French painter, draughtsman, engraver, and illustrator, born on 6 July in Boussy-Saint-Antoine near Paris, where he spent much of his childhood alongside time in the city. Defying his parents' initial hopes for a military career at Saint-Cyr, he pursued art, enrolling in 1900 at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris as a general student. He studied u...