Antoine PONTHUS-CINIER (1812 -1885) - View of Crémieu

Antoine Ponthus-Cinier enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon in 1829, but never seems to have entered. Trained by Paul Delaroche, he won second prize in the Grand Prix de Rome in 1841 with Adam and Eve Chased from Earthly Paradise.

He spent two years in Italy, then returned to Lyon, where he exhibited historical landscapes and landscapes (paintings, Chinese inks, gouaches, watercolors, etchings) from 1837 to 1885, and in Paris from 1841 to 1867. He traveled extensively in the Dauphiné, the Dombes, Provence, the Alps, Savoy and the Pyrenees, practicing Italian neoclassical landscape painting, animated by small, somewhat clumsy figures. He became very well known in the capital of Gaul, where he received numerous commissions. His art evolved towards a different conception of landscape, just as rigorous and learned, but where the search for decorative effect and picturesque arrangement detracted from the sincerity of emotion.

In his will, he bequeathed 50 washes, drawings and an annuity of 1,000 francs to the city of Lyon, to be used to distribute a prize bearing his name (an annual competition for "Landscape from a decorative point of view") awarded by the Lyon Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His studio was sold in Lyon in March 1885.