Simon Denis

The family of the artist

Christie's, Paris, 17 March 2005, lot 404

Private Collection, New York (acquired in 2007)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

After moving to Rome in 1786, Simon Denis immersed himself in the artistic community there, traveling to nearby Tivoli for the first time in 1789 with then-director of the French academy in Rome François-Guillaume Ménageot and fellow artist Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun. Denis took multiple later sketching trips to Tivoli, where he sketched in oil on paper en plein air. Although some of these sketches were studies for later, more fulsome compositions, many – including the present work – were standalone works which the artist created in order to improve his visual memory and intensify his familiarity with nature. For this reason, he often depicted scenes that would ordinarily be overlooked by artists, such as water rushing around a tree trunk. Far from being insignificant studies, Denis often inscribed these works with the location where they were made, affirming their importance within his artistic output.