id: 150038 accession number: 1980.251 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.251 updated: 2023-09-15 11:23:04.681000 Châteauvieux-sur-Suran, 1848. Antoine-Claude Ponthus-Cinier (French, 1812–1885). Oil on paper mounted on fabric; unframed: 53.3 x 75.1 cm (21 x 29 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Noah L. Butkin 1980.251 title: Châteauvieux-sur-Suran title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1848 creation date earliest: 1848 creation date latest: 1848 current location: creditline: Bequest of Noah L. Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on paper mounted on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Antoine-Claude Ponthus-Cinier (French, 1812–1885) - artist Until 1980 the only known facts about Ponthus-Cinier were to be found in Audin and Vial's Dictionnaire des artistes et ouvriers d'art du lyonnais (1918-19). Two exhibitions of the work of nineteenth-century Lyonese landscape painters in the early 1980s prompted more thorough research into the life of this artist.1 Although he was born in Lyons, Ponthus-Cinier seems to have studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, enrolled in the studio of Delaroche (q.v.).2 In 1841 he received the second Prix de Rome for historical landscape painting and left for Italy for two years. Returning to France in 1844, he settled in Lyons but spent his entire life roaming France in search of sites of natural beauty that would remind him of Italy. He left numerous views of Alpine landscapes, and of Savoie, the Dauphiné, Ardèche, the Massif Central, and the Pyrenees. He had a special preference, however, for the regions close to Lyons-the Dombes, the Bugey, and the Ain, as well as the town of Crémieu and its surroundings, which Appian (q.v.) and Ravier (q.v.) would later depict. Ponthus-Cinier exhibited in Lyons from 1838 until his death and in Paris from 1841 to 1867. He also participated in various provincial Salons in cities like Strasbourg, Grenoble, Marseilles, Montpellier, and Toulouse. Ponthus-Cinier was especially fond of depicting landscapes characterized by the combination of rocky slopes, which structured the site, and vegetation, which animated it. Frequently a body of water, reflecting the light, provided a poetic note to these somewhat arid views made up of earth and stone. The artist's work was usually well received by critics, although some reproached him for the monotony of his compositions and choice of color. --- measurements: Unframed: 53.3 x 75.1 cm (21 x 29 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: [?] Aligny [false] / [mostly covered signature a little further to the right:] Ponthvs cinier Distinguishing marks on reverse: handwritten on stretcher: C'Aligny Vue d'Italie; handwritten label: Aligny / Paysage dans le Midi de la France / 1; French customs stamp translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1980 opening date: 1981-06-24T04:00:00 Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). title: Stories From Storage opening date: 2021-02-07T05:00:00 Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Montpellier, La Salle des Concerts. Livret explicatif des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, dessin et lithographie (1849), no. 27, Cinier (Ponthus) Vue du Château vieux, sur les bords du Suran (Ain.). --- PROVENANCE London sale, Sotheby's, 20 July 1977 (lot 142, repr.), as Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny, An Italian Landscape. date: -1977 footnotes: citations: (Shepherd Gallery, New York, NY, sold to Noah L. Butkin) date: 1977 footnotes: citations: Noah L. Butkin [1918-1980], Shaker Heights, OH by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1977-1980 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1980- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The son of a merchant, Ponthus-Cinier was one of the principle artists of the School of Lyon and painted neoclassical views of the countryside around Lyon and the Alpine region near the Swiss border. digital description: This view of a ruined building on a rocky cliff in Châteauvieux above the Suran river in the French Alps is constructed in the manner of a classical or ideal landscape. Forms recede at a measured pace along a sinuous, curving path that passes through carefully defined planes of fore, middle, and background. The warm, glowing light and imaginary figures pursuing their daily tasks contribute to the mood of timeless, pastoral bliss. wall description: This view of a ruined building on a rocky cliff in Châteauvieux above the Suran river in the French Alps is constructed in the manner of a classical or ideal landscape. Forms recede at a measured pace along a sinuous, curving path that passes through carefully defined planes of fore, middle, and background. The warm, glowing light and imaginary figures pursuing their daily tasks contribute to the mood of timeless, pastoral bliss. The artist, Antoine-Claude Ponthus-Cinier, was a highly accomplished painter of neoclassical landscapes who fell into obscurity after his death and remains little known today. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 497-499, Vol. II, no. 173 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.251/1980.251_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.251/1980.251_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.251/1980.251_full.tif