Paul-Dominique Gourlier, 'Acqua Acetosa', 1837

The French artist Paul-Dominique Gourlier specialised in landscapes. He studied under the history painter Paul Delaroche, the neoclassical painter Merry-Joseph Blondel, and the landscapist and founder of the Barbizon School, Camille Corot. Corot may have had the greatest influence on Gourlier. Corot was an advocate of open-air sketching and travelled extensively in France and Italy. He filled notebooks with drawings and made oil sketches, seeking to capture the effects of light and shade on the countryside. Corot spent the spring and summer sketching outdoors and worked on large canvases in his studio over the autumn and winter. Gourlier would emulate his teacher’s approach to open-air painting in terms of subject matter and technique.

Gourlier travelled frequently to Italy. From 1841 he exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, showing many Italian scenes. He often collaborated with his brother, who was a painter of portraits and would add the figures into the landscapes. However, Gourlier had yet to achieve success in 1837, when this work was produced.

This sketch depicts the site of a spring called the Acqua Acetosa in the Roman Campagna. The spring water was believed to have healing properties, in particular for the kidneys and stomach. The spring is located below the Nazons rocks near the River Tiber, which can be seen towards the right in this work.

Although a sketch, Gourlier here worked on canvas rather than on paper, and signed and dated it, perhaps hoping to sell it. He used long, rapid, but carefully applied brushstrokes. While he worked quickly to capture the light, the result is not hurried. The foreground consists of blocks of colour. Gourlier spent more effort on portraying the purple and pink clouds as they drift over the mountains on the horizon. In contrast, the land is rendered in warm earth tones. There are a few signs of life apart from the trails and bridges, giving the scene a still and timeless quality.

As with many of the famous sites of the Roman Campagna, the Acqua Acetosa had been the subject of work by numerous other artists, notably Claude Lorrain, Richard Wilson, J.M.W. Turner and Camille Corot. Indeed, in 1825 Corot had also painted the spring in a manner strikingly similar to Gourlier’s. It is possible that the young artist saw his teacher’s work and wanted to emulate it when he came to the same scene.