The Seine at the Pont de Sèvres

Stanislas Lépine

El Sena en el puente de Sèvres

Lépine, Stanislas

Caen, 1835 - París, 1892

The Seine at the Pont de Sèvres, ca. 1876-1880

© Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza

Signed lower left: ''S. Lepine''.
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
Location: Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid

Oil on canvas on panel

50,8 x 91,4 cm

CTB.1996.14

Artwork history

  • Durand-Ruel, París,January 20,  1890, (adquired at artist)

  • Bernheim-Jeune, París

  • Baron Blanquet de Fulde, París

  • Hôtel Drouot, París, March 12, 1900, lot 41

  • Oscar Crabbe, Brussels

  • Georges Bernheim, París

  • Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York

  • Sotheby’s Auctions, New York, May 23, 1996. lot 61

  • Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

1996

De Canaletto a Kandinsky. Obras maestras de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, . No figuró en el catálogo.

1997

Capolavori dalla Collezione di Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza: 60º anniversario dell'apertura della Pinacotecca di Villa Favorita, Lugano, Villa Favorita, n. 73, p. 196

1997

Del vedutismo a las primeras vanguardias. Obras maestras de la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, n. 20, p. 100

1998 - 1999

Masterworks from the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Tokio, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Takaoka, Takaoka Art Museum; Nagoya, Matsuzaka Art Museum; Sendai, Miyagi Museum of Art, n. 52, p. 122

1999

Aspectos de la tradición paisajística en la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Málaga, Salas de Exposiciones del Palacio Episcopal, n. 58, p. 188

1999 - 2000

Naturalezas pintadas de Brueghel a Van Gogh. Pintura naturalista en la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, n. 57, p. 162

2002

Il trionfo del colore. Collezione Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Kandinsky, Roma, Palazzo Ruspoli, p. 94

2012

Paraísos y paisajes en la Colección Carmen Thyssen. De Brueghel a Gauguin, Málaga, Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga, n. 31, p. 130, lám. p. 131

2012 - 2013

Rusiñol, Monet, Gauguin, Sunyer. El paisaje en la Colección Carmen Thyssen, Gerona, CaixaForum; Tarragona, CaixaForum; Lérida, CaixaForum, n. 8, p. 60, lám. p. 61. (solo Lérida)

2014

L'ideal en el paisatge. De Meifrèn a Matisse i Gontxarova. Col·lecció Carmen Thyssen, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, fundació Privada Centre d'Art Col·lecció Catalana de Sant Feliu de Guíxols, p. 26, lám. p. 27

  • -Schmit, R. y M.: Stanislas Lépine, 1835-1892. Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint. París, Editions Galerie Schmit, 1993, n. 541, p. 215, lám.

  • –Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Arnaldo, Javier (ed.). 2 vols. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2004, vol. 1, p. 354, lám. p. 355 [Sheet by Ronald Pickvance]

Expert report

Consciously or not, Lépine was the most complete chronicler of life on the Seine in and around Paris from the 1860s to his death in 1892. From Charenton and Bercy to the east of the capital all the way downstream to Sèvres, Lépine’s many views of the Seine provide a mini-history of Parisian patterns of work and leisure. His oeuvre divides into small pochades, often painted on small panels, and large, studio-concocted Salon paintings, often measuring as much as 110 x 170 cm. And there were many medium-sized canvases as well: witness here, for instance, this view of the Pont de Sèvres.

The Pont de Sèvres figures in some five of Lépine’s paintings. Three of these show the same view of river, bridge and coteaux, with minor variations in the disposition and emphases of the given elements. Two of the compositions are on canvases measuring 38 x 55 cm; the third-the present painting-is more ambitiously scaled. The three paintings are undated, and a bracket-date of 1876-1880 has been suggested.

Like many French artists of the latter half of the 19th century, Lépine was much affected by the example of Corot. And throughout his career, he maintained an essentially tonal view of landscape painting, untouched by the Impressionist vision of Monet and Sisley. (Even though he showed in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874, he was unaffected by their revolutionary procedures). A true and noble petit maître, Lépine pursued his quiet and lyrical interpretations of nature, so admirably instanced in this view of the Seine at the Pont de Sèvres.

Ronald Pickvance

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